Sleep It Off

Sleep It Off was produced by Don Was. The songs were written by Cristina (all lyrics, except for the covers) collaborating with Was and her backing musicians, Barry Reynolds and Ben Brierley (from Marianne Faithfull's band), and Doug Fieger (from The Knack). The music is beat-laden, sophisticated synth-pop, setting Was's detailed production against Cristina's expressive but sometimes less-than-perfect, cynical No Wave vocal style. At times the music is reminiscent of Blondie, or Madonna, and it does not forget the decadent disco of Cristina's eponymous debut. [(opinion)][1] Chris Connelly describes a record that is a "grimly hilarious gavotte through the upscale decadence of the titled apocalypso" with an effect "somewhere between Marianne Faithfull and the Flying Lizards [but with] music more enjoyable than either".[2] The three cover songs on the record span a wide range: the R&B of Van Morrison's "Blue Money", Brecht and Weill's "Ballad of Immoral Earnings" from the Threepenny Opera, and John Conlee's country hit "She Can't Say that Anymore". (The bonus tracks on the CD release also include covers of Prince and Was (Not Was).)

The sleeve design is by Jean-Paul Goude, who later used a similar idea for Grace Jones's Slave to the Rhythm.

Although featuring shorter, more hook-laden songs than her previous album, Cristina, Sleep It Off is a dark album.[1] Cristina describes it as an album about "coping with sex and money and power plays in the 1980's",

In the sixties people survived on political idealism. In the seventies there was this obsession with 'lifestyle' - women's lib or a new religion, sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, or a macrobiotic diet. Something was always THE ANSWER. In the eighties people are into power and money and narcissism because they don't know what else to believe in. I don't think the album has a cynical take on this. I guess I just believe that whatever's going on, trying to exist is a pretty trying business. Life knocks you down, all you can do is get back up, brush yourself off, cry a little, laugh a little and keep going.[3]

The album has been consistently lauded by critics. On its release in 1984, Rolling Stone said that

Sleep It Off is not for the MTV crowd, but so what? 'My life is in a turmoil/My thighs are black and blue/My sheets are stained, so is my brain/What's a girl to do?' Buy this record, I'd advise. Class is in session.[2]

The Face placed Sleep It Off in its Top 20 records of 1984.[4] When the album was re-issued on CD in 2004, Pitchfork awarded it a grade of 8.5,[1] remarking that Cristina's music gives

a glimpse of how complex and fun popular culture could've been if Harvard girl Cristina's intelligent kitsch had lodged itself in the popular conscious instead of the new-age pabulum of a desperately seeking diva with a goddess complex.

Pitchfork also particularly praises the bonus tracks on the re-release.

Ladytron included "What's a Girl To Do" on their Softcore Jukebox.

Unfortunately, the record was a commercial flop and Cristina consequently retired.[3]

• Cristina - vocals
• Barry Reynolds - guitar
• Ben Brierley - guitar, harmony vocals
• Bruce Nazarian - guitar, slide guitar
• Don Was - Oberheim Obsx, Casio organ, guitar, bass guitar, drum machine, percussion
• Howard Wyeth - drums
• Kevin Tschirhart - percussion
• David McMurray - saxophone
• Kathy Kosins, Susan Schmidt - harmony vocals

with:

• "Sugar-coated" Andy Hernandez - marimba on "Ticket to the Tropics"
• Marcus Belgrave - trumpet on "Ticket to the Tropics"
• Christopher Ewen - synthesizer on "Rage and Fascination"
• Doug Fieger - lead guitar, bass on "Blue Money"
• David Was, James Chance - saxophone on "Blue Money"

Technical

• Michael Zilkha - executive producer
• Don Was, Pete Thea - engineer
• Don Was, Michael Frondelli - mixing
• Jean-Paul Goude - cover, design concept