Cyndi Lauper – True Colors

Cyndi Lauper's True Colors marked a clear shift from the playful rush of She's So Unusual, broadening her sound and showing how much range she could bring to mid-80s pop. Released in 1986 as her second album, it paired a more mature approach with major chart success: the singles “True Colors,” “Change of Heart” and “What’s Going On” all reached the US Billboard Hot 100 top 20, with the title track and “Change of Heart” both making the top five.

The album opens with “Change of Heart,” an energetic pop-rock song featuring backing vocals from the Bangles and guitar from Nile Rodgers. Elsewhere, Lauper balances tenderness and seriousness with “Calm Inside the Storm,” co-written with Rick Derringer, the reflective “Boy Blue,” and a reworked version of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” arranged by Adrian Belew and Lauper herself. Taken together, those choices make the record feel less like a repeat of her debut than a deliberate expansion of her musical vocabulary.

That wider reach helps explain why True Colors has lasted. The title song became one of the defining hits of 1986, and the album remains a strong example of Lauper pushing beyond new-wave image into a more varied, expressive kind of pop songwriting. This Music On Vinyl edition brings that key second chapter in her catalogue back to LP in a straightforward black-vinyl pressing.

Features

• 180g, Music On Vinyl