I discovered a great site today on which I found two albums that sounded as if they may be pretty good. I then found the albums on Amazon for under a fiver each. So I bought them.
J’achète is the debut album by Les Singes Savants and was released in May this year.
I know of many a musical gem that has been hidden beneath a cover of inanity but even so, as my “performing monkeys” were downloading it did occur to me that I may need to grow up.
I had listened to the samples on xtrib.com (you can listen to them by clicking the Amazon widget on the left or using the iTunes link to launch your local iTunes store), and with just one or two exceptions, I liked what I heard.
As I started listening to the album and to the opening title track J’achète, I thought I had made a bit of a mistake – I didn’t really like what I was hearing – it was all a bit flat, a little juvenile and a bit too simplistic. Well, that will teach me to fall for the monkeys, I conceded.
The second track didn’t do a great deal to change my mind but it was quite a foot-tapper so I kept listening (yes, believe me there are albums that I have bought and never listened to fully!)
I had to replay the third track because it was so catchy, track four held its head high and had me wondering what on Earth “tutto va bene” meant (it’s Italian for “tout va bien”, or “all is well”) and by track eight I realised that I was listening to an album that I was truly enjoying. Track eight, incidentally, is currently my favourite on the album is the reason for the title of this article (caboche being slang for “head”.)
Despite the monkeys and the foolery this album contains several songs of an impressive level of song-writing and production. And it’s fun. Even track one sounded fairly good the second time around.
I’m very familiar with albums that start really strong and tail off towards the end. I’m not as familiar with albums such as J’achète which almost got gonged at track two.
Oh, the other album! Yes, I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.
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Those Monkey tunes are actually quite good!