Vitamin C

By Martin Huxley

Aug 31 1999

"I like music that's larger than life," says Colleen Fitzpatrick, aka Vitamin C, whose self-titled Elektra debut certainly fits that description. "I set out to make an intelligent pop record. I want people to look twice, think twice and, well, smile."

"Smile" is also the title of Vitamin C's bubbly opening track, which, like the rest of the album, combines infectious modern dance-pop with a subversive lyrical intelligence. Elsewhere on the album, bouncily rhythmic numbers like "Not That Kind of Girl" and "Me, Myself and I" show off Vitamin C's free-spirited rhythmic style, while "Fear of Flying" features an orchestral arrangement and a familiar rhythm borrowed from The Clash's "The Magnificent Seven." A reading of Split Enz's "I Got You" further underlines the artist's pop instincts, while her more wistful, bittersweet side emerges on "Unhappy Anniversary" and the album-closing "Graduation (Friends Forever)."

Under her real name, Fitzpatrick recorded two albums with the New York alt-pop combo Eve's Plum. Her development into a dance-pop style is a logical one, given Fitzpatrick's early background as a dancer.

She admits an affinity for another former dancer, Madonna, whom she cites as a role model: "She has always been able to make good pop records, but with an intensity and intelligence that also hinted there was much more going on."