Morcheeba - Charango
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Free Music Notes for Charango
Free Music Review: Groovy, chill out perfection!
Hit: 5 Stars
`Charango' was my introduction to Morcheeba and after getting (and loving) this, I went on to get their greatest hits `Parts of the process'.
Morcheeba are UK trip hop/electronica trio, in a similar vein to Portishead and Lamb. Their style is a mix of fusion, blues, and funk with strings, guitars, keyboards, beats and scratches.
Opening track `Slow down' is a mellow, dreamy song with wind like effects and lead vocalist Skye's sultry clear-as-glass vocals. Great guitar! Next is the string swathed `Otherwise' with some delicate guitar. `Aqualung' takes you on a musical swim with its delicate keyboard, guitar and scratches, and ghostly backing vocals.
`Sao Paolo' starts off with some country sounding guitars which give way to a slow, lush tropical sound with ethereal vocals. `Charango' is a fusion jam with some spoken/rapped verses from guest Pace Won.
`What new York couples fight about' is a dreamy, movie like song with spoken verses from Lambchop's Kurt Wagner, and Skye harmonizing and singing the second verse. Very atmospheric.
`Undress me now' is a lush, ghostly sounding guitar ballad. `Way beyond' with its wind like effects is a melancholic ballad with a horn laden chorus.
One of the highlights is the hilarious, groovy `Women lose weight' featuring rapping from Slick Rick. The lyrics tell the tale of a man who wants to do off his fat wife so he can be with his secretary. Morbid and funny, and a very 70s soulful chorus.
The haunting `Get along' features Pace Won rapping, and is a mellow, bubbly, dreamy midtempo retro sound with Skye sounding a bit like Debbie Harry. Fantastic!
`Public displays of affection' is more upbeat but still delicate, and closing track, `The great London traffic warden massacre' is another rich fusion jam. Everything in its right place. Awesome!
Impressive! I like it.
Free Music Review: good stuff
Hit: 5 Stars
i went on a CD spree a few days ago and decided to pick up a few more morcheeba albums as i only had big calm, my favorite CD in the whole wide world. i bought both this and who can you trust?, and i love both of them. but this is about charango, so let me get back on track and fill you in.this is another really great CD from morcheeba. it's more like big calm than fragments of freedom, with lots of laid back, emotional songs and some instumentals. it also has a few rap songs, things i usually avoid, but like all past CD's the rap selections are tolerable. "women lose weight' is kind of disturbing, but skye's little chorus is too fun to sing along with to make complaining worthwhile.
a few songs that stick out to me as truly excellent are "sao paulo" a laid back, rthmyic song with good lyrics. "undress me now" is a sugary, sweet song that leaves me no choice but to sing along. "get along" is another great song that has beautiful vocals from skye. my favorite song on the whole album is "what new york couples fight about" kurt wagner has a great voice, i fell in love with it, and skye's backround vocals plus the backround guitar just make the whole thing incredibly wonderful.
basically this is a really good album. if you like morcheeba but were worried about their future after f of f, like me, then you will be overjoyed with this album. enjoy!
Free Music Review: Excellent, though not vintage Morcheeba..
Hit: 5 Stars
So Morcheeba's fourth effort is out. It is pretty clear that the husky south londoners are edging further and further towards lounge tempo. In a world filled with Vines and Strokes, it really does take a few spins to adjust to Morcheeba's glossy adult pop. If however your CD collection centres around Travis, Moby, K&D, Thievery or similar coffee table downtempo classics, you're going to feel right at home.The studied guitar and sparse Hammond of opener "Slow Down" (an intrumental) could quite easily have been inspired by Pink Floyd - except Floyd never had a singer quite like Skye. Half-way between The Cardigans' Nina Persson and the widely over-rated Norah Jones, her vocals are both distinctive and impressive.
Some of Charango's best moments are its collaborations. Despite strong Skye-only material like "Otherwise" and "Public Displays Of Affection", it's "Women Lose Weight" - with notorious rapper Slick Rick - and "What New York Couples Fight About" - with Lambchop's Kurt Wagner - that really created a ripple with me. The songs are well-written and the tunes are pretty damn faultless. Despite being aimed squarely between the eyes of coffee table connoisseurs, I have to admit that Charango is a very impressive album.
One number to lend a careful ear to: Aqualung.
Free Music Review: trip-hoppy chillout return to form
Hit: 5 Stars
Similar to but better (more polished, though some might call it "overproduced") than Who Can You Trust? and Big Calm. If I had to describe the sound of the majority of songs on Charango, I'd call it "smooth and creamy" to the ears with that ubiquitous hip-hop beat done to death by other performers but smoothed and mellowed by Morcheeba.The "Women Lose Weight" song is, for me, not offensive (hello, parody, people: let's try to recognize humor -- and I say that being a fat chick myself). Actually, story-wise, it's kind of humorous -- in a very black way, of course. I just don't really like rap unless it's in the style of "Bug Powder Dust" by Bomb The Bass/Justin Warfield.
So if I were ripping the songs to MP3, I'd leave off Women Lose Weight. But everything else I'd rip to MP3 -- even Sao Paulo, a mix of dreamy samba and their usual chilled trip-hop. Especially Slow Down, Aqualung, What Do New York Couples Fight About, Way Beyond, Public Displays of Affection. They're on my MP3 player already, and I made a copy to play on my car CD player... etc. I especially look forward to cruising around in the summer with the windows open, playing Charango. That's how this album makes you feel.
Free Music Review: Morcheeba... fabulous as always!
Hit: 5 Stars
First off, I should say that I was probably the only person in the world who thought "Fragments of Freedom" was a great album. I think the people who trashed the last album were too stuck-up and narrow-minded to appreciate it anyway.. it was an album that was fun and not meant to be taken seriously. With "Charango" Morcheeba seem to have returned to the old days with songs of the slower, more serious variety. However, one thing I've always admired about this band is that they never sound the same on any records. This record really doesn't have much in common with the other ones, just that the songs are presented in the same style as being slow and mediative. There is only a little bit of trip hop to be seen. This album is mostly a mixture of folk, orchestra and R&B for the most part. I also have to say that I actually enjoyed the guest raps as well. I usually think guest rap ruins most albums but not in this case. The song with Slick Rick is a bit "out there", but it's an eye-opener and proves a point. Overall, it's a strong effort from Morcheeba, as always! I have all of their albums now and they have never disappointed me. Pick this one up and just sit back, relax and enjoy.