A Night to Remember

by Stephen Thomas ErlewineOn True Colors, Cyndi Lauper began to edge her way into adult contemporary territory, but it was on her third album, A Night to Remember, that she concentrated all of her attention on becoming a self-consciously "mature" singer/songwriter. A Night to Remember doesn't work, but not because she's incapable of performing polished, well-crafted middle-of-the-road material -- "Time After Time" and "True Colors" prove that she could convincingly deliver ballads. Instead, the album is a failure because it assumes that labored arrangements and precisely detailed production are tantamount to musical sophistication. Far from sounding sophisticated, A Night to Remember is bland and tedious, with only the seductive "I Drove All Night" making a lasting impression.