Un Beat, Une Voix, Des Chordes December 10, 2003
16 out of 21 found this review helpful
Solaar's back, and this time he means business. His last album, Cinqueme As was brilliant, but this time he's got to impress again, and has he done it?
Tracks like La Vie Est Belle are a bit overpowering, with Solaar chatting about war coming closer to him, which makes you think he was being sarcastic when he wrote the song name. Hijo De Africa has a great African sound, with it's earthy rythms. He tries to fit in as many African references as he can, which is quite cool.
T'inquete isn't as good as I thought it would be, it's too James Bond like to me. With his typical James Bond piano riffs and French horn. The lyrics are not as good as other tracks. Again, he uses the orchestra meanfully, but I still don't really like the vibe of it.
Guereia has this great horn section, and the lyrics are on point. Solaar makes a lot of war refrences and a lot of silly play on words, which do make you laugh out loud (something rap often doesn't do, so well done Claude MC).
Other favourites of mine include Jumelles, a song about him falling in love with a woman in the library, with it's great poetic lyrics, this has to be one of his best pieces of work in a long time. The lyrics are as good as Caroline. We find out she's got another man, and he throws his roses on the floor (what class?)
Jardin D'Eden is also great - Solaar rapping about a nicer place where lakes are clean and pretty women. The lyrics are again of high quality, Solaar must spend hours writing these lyrics.
One of my favourites so far has to be Au Pays De Ghandi, with it's western beats meets eastern instrumental. This is an excellent track about Solaar's trip in India. This is one of the more "hip-hop" tracks on his album, which is nice. It does remind me a bit of "Leve Toi Est Rap", from his last installment.
J'connais mon role is also amazing, he's gone back to his jazz roots here, rapping about his role, and making people stop clenching their fist and shaking hands. He also big ups the people helping to stop AIDS and people against land mines, which is quite cool to say the least. The beat and the double bass work very well here.
Cash Money is a funny song about modern women who want big bills not small change. Again, the ethnic beats work well here, and his lyrics are funny yet charming. He then says "I'm old skool and don't have any cash"... smashing.
Today's a good day has a great vibe. He's singing about going down to the job centre and asking to be a musician, while his mum's giving him hassle about his spending habbits and she's got no confidence in him making the top 50 (something he's done a lot). The whole arrangement is nice, good guitar work and the singing is phenominal.
Souviner is quite a serious song, about the time he was stopped by the police because he was driving a nice car. They thought it was stolen. It's a nicely told tale about the police and foregn relations in France.
Sauvez Le Monde is another orchestral track, with Solaar asking people to save this crazy world before it goes up in smoke. He's using the orchestra to it's full, as he creates nearly a film soundtrack in the middle. It's a good track, but not one of my favourites, I think it's a bit over the top.
Bling Bling is another cool track, which has a sort of West Indies sound to it, here; he talks about people who show off with jewels and reminds people it's not that easy to make it rich. He's also saying the lifestyle in music videos is not real, and people don't usually have that much bling bling. It's funny how we've got nearly the same issues in France as we do here....
Ca me hante is the last stop on the journey that is Mach 6 - and an excellent insight into the way immigrants came to France. He talks about being on a boat as cargo, getting off and going to his uncle's in Paris. The track is nearly 8 minutes of him telling us about life as an immigrant, and how things went. The music is excellent - with the orchestra playing pizacarto strings and the lyrics are perfect.
Altogether this is a pretty good album. If you like MC Solaar, you're going to like this. The only let downs are about 3 songs, but the album will probably grow on you, like it had to do for me. When I first listened it wasn't really doing much for me, but after 4 listens, you get hooked to the album.
The album also has a gateway to his secret site where you can watch "la vie est belle", which is quite a nice feature.
If you like Solaar, buy this, if you are a big fan, get the digipack....
|