Capitol's The Voice of the Sparrow: The Very Best of Edith Piaf offers 18 selections from the Edith Piaf songbook, in nearly every case the best version of the song -- whether performed during the '30s, '40s, or '50s. Many of her best songs are here, from her signature songs -- "La Vie en Rose" and "L'Accordéoniste" -- to "Hymne À l'Amour" and ...
Putumayo's first geographically based CD after their tenth anniversary celebrations, French Café covers the narrow concept of café music in an admirable manner, including a number of styles that have made their way through the Parisian café systems and/or are inspired by the work of previous artists among the café elite. Some of the classic ...
Italian star Zucchero has coaxed a wide variety of fellow artists into the studio over the years, and those vocal duets and other collaborations are gathered together on this collection, covering a period of over 15 years. This is one of those albums on which, intentionally, the selling point is the laundry list of co-stars, which is formidable: ...
The task of compiling a single-disc best-of collection for legendary Greek chanteuse Nana Mouskouri is virtually impossible, but this 21-track retrospective, spanning the singer's career and incorporating a range of musical styles, is an excellent introduction for the novice or casual fan. For the collector, it offers two rarities: her version of ...
Like many late '90s outfits, the Los Angeles-based Ozomatli is an eclectic conglomeration, fusing a wild variety of music. At its core, the group is a dance band, blending funk, hip-hop, Latin rhythms, jazz, salsa, reggae, Tejano, and worldbeat into its sound. It's a busy, heady mix and occasionally there's simply too much going on in the mix for ...
The best compliment that can be paid to Nouvelle Vague's self-titled debut album: it isn't as arch and smirking as a collection of bossa nova versions of new wave classics by fetching French and Brazilian chanteuses would suggest. Based on the concept alone, Nouvelle Vague seems similar to the work of jokesters like the Mike Flowers Pops or ...
Capitol Records compiled a definitive collection of Edith Piaf's work 30 years after her death; the compilation includes both the well-known ("La Vie en Rose," "Milord," "Padam...Padam," "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien," etc.) and the hard to find (including "Johnny Tu N'Es Pas un Ange," "Un Dimanche à Londres," "À Quoi Ça Sert l'Amour?," and "A L ...
Having created quite an impact in her native France, the Nouvelle Vague singer uses a concept on her second solo outing -- Le Fil, or the thread, a drone that runs throughout the disc (and, just to emphasize, runs for about 30 minutes at the end if you don't turn the CD off). She won a couple of French awards with this disc, and it's easy to see ...
Falta Amor is the Mexican pop/rock band's least noteworthy album by far -- musically, at least -- but it still has its moments and, most importantly, it established them as a promising act during the early '90s, with an exceptionally straightforward pop/rock sound for a Mexican band. In particular, "Rayando el Sol" is a highlight and established a ...
Arriving a long four years after Revolución de Amor (2002), which had been the band's most accomplished album to date, and a Grammy winner to boot, Amar Es Combatir confirmed Maná's continuing designation as the world's standard-bearing Spanish-language mainstream rock band. Amar Es Combatir's lead single, "Labios Compartidos," was an overnight ...
At the height of his popularity, after establishing a fan base for himself across much of Western Europe as well as parts of the Spanish-language world, Italian singer/songwriter Eros Ramazzotti took some time off during the late '90s and released Eros, a greatest-hits compilation comprised primarily of newly recorded material. The 16-track ...
European superstar Manu Chao has long gotten by on writing simple repetitive melodies with simple repetitive lyrics, making it, if nothing else, easy for his international audience to sing along, no matter their native language. So it is not particularly surprisingly he follows the same pattern on his fourth studio full-length, Radiolina, ...
By the time of his fourth album, La Vida...Es un Ratico, it was difficult to imagine Juanes being any more acclaimed or popular. He'd already won trophy cases of awards, from numerous Grammys to France's highest cultural honor, L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and he'd already topped charts in a diverse range of countries, including not only the ...
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA, and co-produced by rock en español expert Gustavo Santaolalla, the second album by Grammy-winning Juanes, highly anticipated following the release of its first single, "A Dios Le Pido," once again delivers his awarded fusion of urban, rock, and Latin American rhythms. A spiritual folk-rock song opens this 12-track ...
Culling songs from both pop artists and children's artists from all over the Francophile world, Putumayo Presents: French Playground is a fun, bright look into the realm of French music. All of it is child-friendly, with jazzy chords and optimistic vocals. L'Autobus à Vapeur's "Bonjour, Bonjour" is especially catchy and is a great way not only to ...
The first solo album released by the former frontman of Mano Negra, Clandestino is an enchanting trip through Latin-flavored worldbeat rock, reliant on a potpourri of musical styles from traditional Latin and salsa to dub to rock & roll to French pop to experimental rock to techno. Chao's voice tends to be a bit nasally, but the best songs ( ...
The unplugged trend of the 1990s could be quite revealing. If a band used amplification to mask its deficiencies, going acoustic could easily expose them. But when artists who had a lot going for them -- everyone from Aerosmith and Bruce Springsteen to L.L. Cool J -- went unplugged, they had a lot of strong material to rely on and triumphed in an ...
With the tag "world music" applying to everything in an easy catch-all umbrella category, it's hard to disseminate between a quality exercise in the fusion of cultures and a bargain-bin, second-rate throwaway imitation. Beyond some sort of run-of-the-mill world music act, Balkan Beat Box's eponymous debut fuses Arabic, Hassidic, and other ...
After the runaway success of her charming, folksy first album, Quelqu'un M'a Dit, Carla Bruni's sophomore effort takes a more difficult route and sees her setting canonical works by such poets as Yeats and Emily Dickinson to music. The lines "Wrapping that foul body up/In as foul a rag" in Yeats' "Those Dancing Days Are Gone" are delivered almost ...
Defying the trend of shoving a bunch of songs together for unit-shifting, the soundtrack to the Bill Murray movie The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou is a cohesive and entertaining collection of songs. Sven Libaek's score pieces are remarkable, from the dreamy jazz of "Shark Attack Theme" to the watery, hypnotic "Open Sea Theme," while Mark ...
The Best of Paolo Conte is currently the only collection of the Italian singer/songwriter's music that is readily available in America. Fortunately for those with a soft spot for quirky romantics, it is a fine representation of his life's work. Conte is often compared to Tom Waits, presumably because both men have gravelly voices and write from a ...
EMI's U.K. collection of Edith Piaf, titled Éternelle, is quite a nice set that includes many of Piaf's numerous hits, such as "La Vie en Rose" and "La Goualante du Pauvre Jean." Overall, Éternelle is comparable to the U.S. mainstay on Capitol Records, The Voice of the Sparrow: The Very Best of Edith Piaf, but with only seven of the 18 songs ...
Since the mid-'90s, every new album release by Café Tacuba was an event, especially in the band's native Mexico. This was partly because of the band's considerable renown and their reputation for evolving stylistically, but also because new album releases were few and far between. Like Cuatro Caminos (2003) before it, Sino was eagerly awaited by ...
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![Nouvelle Vague [14 Tracks]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/g76515xbvry_t.jpg)
![Le Fil [US Bonus Tracks]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/h34215mxvup_t.jpg)
![Eros [Italian Version]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/d10220412a8_t.jpg)
![The Best of Paolo Conte [Nonesuch]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/d53854d0v57_t.jpg)
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