Haut De Gamme – Koweit, Rive Gauche

Meh, didn’t do much for me.

Sometimes I find world music cheesy and feel guilty for not being open-minded enough.

Then I read this guys wiki page and found out he’s a piece of shit.

I talked to my Congolese friend about this album and he gave some interesting insights. I informed him while why I didn’t hate this album, it all kind of blended together for me with the exception of Elixir. And he informed me that it’s meant to be that way as these albums are meant to be a continuous story. He also informed me that they get money most of the time from donors to sing songs about them or their situation and then the artist will throw in a couple of songs that are personal to them but still fit within the narrative. I just thought that was interesting to share.

Had high hopes based on his choice of artwork for his album covers but hard to find the redeeming features in this mid-90s sludge. Also, he appears to be a real piece of shit.

Koffi Olomide’s music is tremendously fun. The picture of him on the front of this LP pointing towards the camera pretty much sums up this record, the sunniest record on Earth. However, it must be said that the closer it gets to its conclusion the more wearisome its optimism gets, as it’s essentially the same song 9 times over. Had it been half the length I would rated it higher.

It’s pleasant, but it didn’t massively grab me.

Between this guy and Serge Gainsbourg, this generator has given me the absolute lowest opinion of the French

They should’ve put in a 7th Elvis Costello record instead.

Just not my cup of tea, songs drag on for too long

Nichts zu sagen, harmlose Musik. -1 Stern, weil Vergewaltiger

Glad Soukous music got some representation in the list. Lots of people here showing their ass by implying that the only "true "African music should be raw and not use modern production techniques; also removing any agency from artists by implying that the sound is for Western audiences and not for stylistic preferences. Also without minimising the crime committed if you don't separate the art from the artist, much of this list is null and void.

Hey a non-Western artist on this list! More of this please! That being said, while I definitely enjoyed branching out and think that this project is objectively quite pleasant, I'm not the biggest fan of percussion-driven music in general and found it to be tedious.

He is not afraid of a preset rhythm on his keyboard but that does not stop the album from being great - which is a pity as he is so problematic .

Can I just say that I unironically adore how straightforward and under-designed the cover art is? It captures the exact lofi, loose and free vibe of the music, and while I don't think the album's a "masterpiece" - not that it has any pretensions of being one - this mf had me moving the whole way through! One hell of a good time!

Standouts: Papa Bonheur • Désespoir • Conte de Fées • Obrigado

This was great, sounded like a carnival. Really cheery.

Fun! Lingala? And French? Or is it just that spoken Lingala has a bunch of French influence?? I think it's *not* just that, though, because the titles/choruses/"main ideas" are more often in French, so it seems like a stylistic code-switch. Very cool. A linguistics dataset for me. Plus 'Élixir' is (almost?) totally in French, and that's the most straightforward love song here.

Honestly, there's more African albums on this list than I expected (at least 3).

Everything here has good energy, even 'Désespoir', which you'd think might be a mopefest. If I'm understanding them right (which I definitely may not be), every song is kinda like "Mom! Nobody likes me! But - I love {girl's name (different one in every song)}! Everybody dance!". Oh, and there's one about how money isn't everything (everybody dance!).

This guy is getting review-bombed due to his crimes. Taking the album at face value, I l found it catchy and nice, not a bad listen for a Tuesday morning, and more palatable than a lot of albums on here. 4*
POUSSA POUSSEZ POUSSA POUSSEZ
Highlights: desespoir

I like the rhythms and the dance vibe but there really isn’t much variety. C’est bon ça! At the end of pretty much every song. Can’t give it all five but it was enjoyable. I bet his live shows are fun.

That was refreshing change of pace. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Well let's say at the start that from the Wiki article he sounds like a pretty despicable person and when Papa Wemba is sitting right there, is this actually an album I need to hear?

Musically fine when it does the Afro-funk, but there are several tracks where it seems to aim at Afro-yacht Rock - more Charles Aznavour than Fela Kuti - and do we need that?