Mnemosyne's Lounge

"Mnemosyne's Lounge" is the title of the unreleased debut album by Washington, DC singer and recording artist Easter Bradford. The album release was scrapped by Outsider Music, his label, because they wanted to focus their money on producing remixes for more established (and thus guaranteed money-making) artists like Madonna and Cher.

The album was a concept album, with 13 tracks. The album was dedicated to Goddess of memory Mnemosyne. Each track was dedicated to one of the Muses (daughters of Mnemosyne,) or the Furies (her sisters.) The cover artwork was taken by famous Washington, DC based photographer Billy Bustamente[?]. It featured Bradford in a lounge setting with a pre-fame supermodel James King[?] dressed as Mnemosyne.

The song "Consummate Professional Relationship Destruction Machine" was a house/dance track that lyrically addressed the concept of a relatonship failing due to projecting the image of a lover onto that person, and then hating them for not living up to it. The song was expected to be a huge hit and thus remixes were produced and a promotional single was pressed.

Other songs included "Kissable," a folktronica ballad that managed to reference Miguel Cervantes' "Don Quixote" and Bruce Springsteens[?] "I'm On Fire" in a single lyric. (See lyric samples below.) "Scarecrow Song" seemed at first to be an angry rant at the killers of hate-crime victim Matthew Shepard, but on consideration proves instead to be a delicate accusation of the selective martyrdom of the gay community. "Bayou Refueling Station" is an upbeat country-rocker about a gay man's Southern heritage, while "Flesh Fish Honey Woman" addreses the physical judgementality of American women.

Of the few critical reviews published most commented on the cover track "Sugar" by singer Tori Amos. Amos penned the track at the last minute while on a train ride into London to present album tracks to her label; it was a lament on the forgetfullness of boys (the waiter on the train kept asking her how many sugars she wanted with her tea.) Bradford managed to turn the track on it's ear, making the song a fierce dirge about a young man's fear of revealing his homosexuality. (In the South, to say a man has "some sugar in him" is to infer he is gay.)

The track listing was:

• Consummate Professional Relationship Destruction Machine
• Kissable
• Scarecrow Song (Demise of the Stuffing)
• Bayou Refueling Station
• Sugar (penned by singer/songwriter Tori Amos)
• Flesh Fish Honey Woman
• Circle's Side of the Story
• Weaver Woman (Interlude)
• I'm Gonna Be Strong (penned by Kurt Mann/Cynthia Veil)
• Red Hotel Wall
• Orb
• Kids (Have Fun)
• Broken Loom (Interlude)
• BONUS TRACKS
• Consummate Professional Relationship SALSATION Machine (Remix)
• Consummate Professional DISCOTHEQUE Destruction Machine (Remix)
• Consummate MECHANICAL Relationship Destruction Machine (Remix)
• Kissable (Naked in an Armchair Remix)

SAMPLE LYRICS

"Consummate Professional Relationship Destruction Machine"

Lay down in the dandelion fields, baby/I can take you through me, maybe on a Wednesday/Fresh Fields, tell me how your skin feels/When I blow my hot air sideways over you

"Kissable"

I remember the trips to Saturn/I remember the rings you gave to me/Stumbling through the orchards, the impossible dreams/And the windmills that fought for me/I showed you the vallies, six inches or more/I showed you the power of being more than one

"Scarecrow Song"

Wasn't he beautiful/Wasn't he righteous/Wasn't he everything we want you to see in us/Wasn't he a great way to go out when the soft light dies.../I make no excuses/Hanging me from fences

"Bayou Refueling Station"

I hit the bayou refueling station when I was only seventeen/It was a refill up on my empty cup/It was a dinner party with Mnemosyne/I had to revisit all those banks we left open for the folk to see/I had Alanis in my deck that day/'Cause I couldn't find my Carole King

"Sugar"

Sweet boy when they find you out/Tell me what you think they'll do/When they find you got a little in here/Tell me what you think they'll do/When theyf ind you out/When they find out you're just sugar

"Flesh Fish Honey Woman"

Take a grape soda bath/Pray to the Duracraft/A Willow to my naughts, a pan to my pots/It's gonna be my saving grace/I know I'm gonna be something sweet/I'm gonna be a Flesh Fish Honey Woman

"Circle's Side of the Story"

Climb up the clifftops/Blasting out good (and better) music from a 24-hour coffee cafe/So this is where the blue folk migrate?/Attempting to save the world won't do you any more good than shitting on it/and I go round and round for you

"Weaver Woman"

There is a woman who weaves the night sky/Watch her work, see her fingers fly/She is within us, beginning to end/Our grandmother, our sister, our friend

"I'm Gonna Be Strong"

I'm gonna be strong and stand as tall as I can/I'm gonna be strong and let you go along/and take it like a man/When you say it's the end, I'll hand you a line/I'll smile and say "Don't you worry, it's fine"

"Red Hotel Wall"

Reagan is standing across the street and I see her/Reagan is looking directly at me and I see her/And they say she changed her name to Peg/And they say she couldn't get a leg up/Reagan, I thought you didn't like "Home on the Range"

"Orb"

When you don't let me in I can't be down/When you won't let me in I won't be down/I can't be in your orb/What is loving you?

"Kids"

You finally got it right, kids/The future's looking bright, kids/Whether you know it or you don't the healthy shit is catching up to you kids/So have fun, don't let them get in your way/Have fun, don't let them have the final say/When the world blows no one will ask you to explain