1. Who Loves Ya Baby? 2. Lost in Your Eyes 3. Love in Disguise 4. Helplessly in Love 5. Silence Speaks (A Thousand Words) 6. Should've Been the One 7. Electric Youth 8. No More Rhyme 9. Over the Wall 10. We Could Be Together 11. Shades of the Past 12. We Could Be Together [Camfire Mix][*] 13. No More Rhyme [Acoustic Mix][*]
I highly recommend buying from this seller. I received my CD promptly and it was in perfect condition. Thank you!! A+++!
My No. 2 Album of All Time : Still Can't be Beat! Submitted on: 2007-08-30
In 1989, my Dad took me to this store called 'Stereovision' and asked me to pick out any cassette I wanted. I was a huge music fan, but the only thing I owned at that point was my worn out copy of "The Sound of Music" that my Mom had got me a while earlier. So this was an amazing opportunity. I remembered reading about Debbie Gibson in 'Teen Beat', and "Electric Youth" had just been released, so I chose the cassette - Debbie's sunny smile and goofy hat just won me over instantly. Needless to say, the album went on to become a huge part of my growing up, and remains alongwith Tiffany's debut CD, one of those defining moments that mark anyone's life.
Is this solid pop music? Yes, it is. In fact, it takes you to a time when none of the songs were about sex, nudity, or even romance, necessarily. Most of Debbie's songs are about love, sure, but also empowerment and widening your horizons. The number of times I listened to "Over the Wall" as a 12 year old, wondering what I'd be when I grew up! Its memories like these that endear this album more to me. Granted, its not everyone's cup of tea, but associatively or otherwise, there is some really good music here, especially noteworthy considering the person that wrote the words and music was not even 20 at the time.
Every track is a gem. When I listen to pop music today, its glaringly obvious that Gibson and Tiffany actually had talent (I don't think theres been a 'teen queen' quite as talented as Debbie, actually - not even Aguilera). Evidence of this is immediately felt on the opening track "Who Loves Ya Baby" - the melody remains fresh all these years later! - and "Lost in Your Eyes" (the big single off this album). However, the beauty of this album are on some of the lesser known tracks, such as "We could be together" (I found a video for it on Youtube recently - I didn't even know it had a video), and "Helplessly in Love", both with freakin' awesome choruses. You know, heres the thing. Even if youre sitting in 2007 and wondering 'Whats this dude goin on about Debbie Gibson for?', you have to take my word and get this album, because cent for cent there is a melodious verse and chorus at every turn. Now, which was the last album you heard that had THAT.
Debbie would go on to make some other beautiful albums as well, primarily the underrated "Anything is Possible", but this still remains her greatest commercial and critical success, and with good reason. Its hard to find fault with its upbeat, happy and constantly positive message, and I score it very highly for not falling into the trap of 'cheesy love ballads from the 80s' category. Actually, its anything but that, and what you will find here is an album you can listen to at any time. Yes, I AM biased, considering this was a cultural touchstone when I was growing up, but I were to choose one album from the late 1980s to listen to consistently, this would be it.
Never boring, and constantly entertaining, "Electric Youth" is an album for all time.
PS - I just read about the "Electric Youth" Musical that opened in Orlando, FL in May 2007 that pays homage to the songs on this CD. If that isn't staying power, I don't know what is!
lost in the music Submitted on: 2007-05-28
if you liked debbie gibson's first album,you will like this one. some songs you will like are lost in your eyes,electric youth,no more rhyme,and we could be together. i aleo think you will like the acoustic versions of the last two songs. get lost in the music. ed wilson
I've Seen the Future...And It's Electric! Submitted on: 2007-01-03
Back in the late 80s, I was teaching foreign languages on the high school level and was eager to try out some of the then-new methods of language teaching methodology. One of the then au courant notions was to engage the students in conversations about topics they cared about--the principle idea being that once they got to talk about their favorite music or movies or WHATEVER!, they would forget their self-consciousness about speaking French or Spanish or German and give their actual opinion.
It was supposed to be like real conversation in other words--just en francais or espanol or auf deutsch. And it certainly seemed like a much more interesting approach than conjugating AVOIR in the pluperfect or talking about how the pen of your aunt lay on the table of your uncle.
And I thought I had a real advantage because I was at least aware enough of youth culture to be able to bandy about some of the then trendy names. So in a classic move, I asked one of my students: "Qui est-ce que tu preferes--Tiffany ou Debbie Gibson?" (I'll bet you can figure that one out even if you've never studied French.
Of course, I hadn't counted on the vagaries of teenage fandom, so I probably shouldn't haven't been surprised when the student to whom I posed the question responded, "Je deteste Tiffany ET Debbie Gibson!" (And I'll bet you don't need a degree in French linguistics to suss that one out either).
Of course, after the fact, I should have realized that THAT was one question that I should never have posed to an upperclassman. Yeah, it might have worked well enough with one of the little freshmen, but by the time you start talking juniors and seniors, well, Debbie and Tiffany were definitely out! And that was probably true whether the kid was a preppie, a punk or a stoner. (As I recall this was one of the cheerleaders, so it wasn't like I was singling out a Floyd or Guns'n'Roses fanatic or something).
Well, at least I got to teach them a new idiom. "Ah," I said, "tu detestes toutes les deux!" (Appx. translation: "Aha. You can't stomach either one of them.") So much for keeping up with youth trends. Maybe I should have just stuck to "la plume de ma tante" after all.
Of course, it might have helped to actually have heard either Debbie OR Tiffany's music. Truth was, I just knew the names and had no idea whether either one of them was any good.
So when I found ELECTRIC YOUTH on sale for $.99 a few years ago, well, I had to pick up on it. Having bandied her name about en francais, I was curious as just who the heck she was and whether or not she actually had something going on or whether she actually deserved that cheerleader's opprobrium. No, I still can't tell you whether or not Debbie had it all over Tiffany or not. (I'm saving Tiffany for another day--or decade). But for a young teen, Debbie was clearly artistically ambitious, having written all the songs on the album. And the lyrics were all clearly broken down into their "chorus," "verse," and "bridge" sections, so you see, she had some notion of song structure. And it was just adorable how the title phrase of each song was CAPITALIZED on the lyric sheet, so you could home right in on it. (Deb wasn't one of those obscure songwriters, whose titles had nothing to do with the actual words to the song.)
In fact, the only thing obscure about the songs, actually, is that like the writings of so many high school age poets, songwriters or plain ol' diarists, the songs seem to have more to do with the yearnings for experience than with actual experiences. Which is OK for a 17 year old. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for young people acting their age. They've got plenty of time to get totally jaded. (At least wait 'til senior year.) It's just to point out that lyrics like "I get lost in your eyes/And I feel my spirits rise/And soar like the wind/Is it love that I am in?" are reflective of either first love or (just as likely) FANTASIZED first love. It can be charmingly adolescent, but it lacks the "lived through it" quality that only time can bring.
Like many a youngster trying her hand at any kind of creative writing, the young Deborah Gibson seems to aching to express more than she can actually successfully convey. Part of it really is a lack of life experience, and part of it is just learning how to write. Gibson was not a teen prodigy on the order of, say, Kate Bush or Laura Nyro (who were producing truly great stuff in their mid to late teens). But she was not an embarrassment either.
The title track is what Jefferson Airplane might have earlier termed a "Hymn to An Older Generation." In fact, there is something kinda 60s about the very title "Electric Youth." I mean it hearkens back to when Dylan went ELECTRIC or maybe evokes a title like Country Joe and the Fish's ELECTRIC MUSIC FOR THE MIND AND BODY. Or the Firesign Theater's famous remark about the future: "It's electric." OK, OK, I'm kidding a bit. But it is interesting that Debbie, who was born in 1970, seems to be making a pitch for the 60s generation to UNDERSTAND her peer group. In the liner notes, she notes how young people in the 1960s sought to express themselves, and now her cohort group seeks the same as her lyrics suggest: "Don't you see a strong resemblance o yourself?/Don't you think what we say is important? Whatever it may be..."
Well, that's certainly true, Deb. Those of us who came of age were sometimes less than tolerant of a younger generation that seemed less idealistic, more caught up in petty concerns and just more gimme-gimme than we liked to think of ourselves as being. But we were probably just kidding ourselves anyway. Although we did at least have actual drummers. But I take seriously Debbie's bid to be taken seriously.
And I suspect that in her current incarnation as stage actress and singer, DEBORAH Gibson has likely come to merit the respect that she seemed to crave when she wrote the lyrics to this album. She doesn't seem to have made a full transition from teen idol to adult Superstar, but that only adds to her credibility. She apparently has soldiered on and continues to work in her chosen profession. That counts for something. And no doubt, she can take some satisfaction in that fact as she faces her Electric Middle Age.
Debbie Submitted on: 2006-11-10
I am very happy to have this CD; I have had the cassette tape for years & it was wearing out. It is nice to have Debbie's songs on a CD now.
Jacquie Penny
Electric Youth
I've Seen the Future...And It's Electric!