Biggup each and every one of the artists and producers in the world who are looking at things just a little bit differently, because it is you who really make listening to music so enjoyable. You have no idea (or maybe you do) exactly how refreshing it is, after listening to a billion songs saying the say damn thing (I.e. “praise, praise Jah”, or, “gimme di gyal dem”) to get to an artist who goes onto tell you exactly why to do something or how, some type of other lyrical changeup. And on the producer’s end, it’s great when a Dancehall producer doesn’t need a gimmick or doesn’t need a former hit riddim as his/her literal blueprint for future success (so you end up hearing the same tired ass sounding concept over and over again and someone is trying to act like its ‘cool‘ or ‘normal‘ or ‘innovative‘) (lying). Similarly, we LOVE and celebrate musical magicians like Kemar McGregor for the technical and downright ‘physical’ advancement of the one-drop and I dare even the most casual of Reggae listeners to say (honestly) that it’s boring, mechanical or any of the other type of unfortunate and WRONG categorizations often given to Roots Reggae. Now, that being said, in my opinion, when you get to a genre like Soca and especially Zouk, MUSICALLY distinguishing oneself definitely becomes an interesting feat and ordeal. In Soca, which almost promotes individuality in terms of the personas of the particular artists, but musically speaking, they’re all on their own and far too many Soca heads rely the basic “jump and wave (and then do it several times more)” refrain as to ‘save’ themselves, in the absence of genuine skill. In Zouk? Things are FAR FAR more difficult, so similarly (at least in that respect), when I find an artist who so EASILY seems to musically distinguish themselves, while making GOOD music (and not just distinguish themselves by being abhorrently AWFUL), I stick to them and become very hard to get rid of, like a rash. So, if you can do that by making good music AND have a kind of ‘hitch’ to your style, well then you’re going to have to make a run to the dermatologist’s office and do so QUICKLY to get rid of your case of Achis. Currently infected to the brim in the pantheon of Zouk artists are, of course, Kénédy, Fanny (J), Kaysha’s latest discovery Isah, Thayna, Lindsey Lin’s (biggup Céline) and then there’s Goldee. If you look at all of those names, with the exception of Isah (who is from Cape Verde) (and is this strange Zouk rapper kind of an artist) (and is growing on me rapidly), you have female French Caribbean singers. I could literally sit here and name you dozens and dozens more (Tanya St. Val, Peggy Bajal, Perle Lama) artists who fit that criteria, that is actually the kind of stereotypical Zouk artist and to me, someone who hasn’t been listening to the music for a very long time at all, it’s definitely the figure cast in my head when someone mentions the word ‘Zouk’: A youthful (yes Tanya and Peggy still qualify) kind of divinely angelic sounding female singer. So why in the hell is Goldee sticking out SO FAR?
Two (and a half) reasons: The first is that, like I said, she’s GOOD. The woman has skills, she really does (and I’ve even seen her playing guitar, which she does quite well. That half a reason I alluded to is her look. Goldee is a VERY unique looking individual (I THINK she kind of, sort of, looks like a younger Alicia Keys). She almost looks as if she’s perpetually smiling. Her music? Even more interesting. When I first stumbled upon the young songstress from out of Martinique, all of the music that I heard (almost all) was this BEAUTIFUL kind of Zouk-Reggae hybrid vibe and it was just so nice and, again, very distinguishing. Also, quite a bit of her earlier material was HITS. Throughout the Caribbean, Goldee, alongside burgeoning artists like the ones I mentioned before (especially Kénédy), were beginning to standout and not to say that she was the best (Kénédy was), but her tunes were immediately recognizable, because what she did was take the typical sound and fusion it with what is far more seen as ‘catchy’ in the terrestrial/traditional sense. Without having a full LP to her credit, a couple of years ago, Goldee released a VERY NICE EP, Goldee: Remix for Joel Jaccoulet’s BCaribean imprint (I believe he runs that label). The Remix album, was VERY NICE, it had two of her biggest hits at the time, ‘Baby Fly’ and ‘Pointe Des Nègres’ in quite a few different mixes (thus the title). Also, on that same front, Goldee had a couple of selections on a very nice (and apparently quite popular and commercially successful as well) compilation from DJ Fly and BCaribean, West Indeez Coast. The absolutely delightful songstress now brings forth her first FULL solo release (to my knowledge), Le Moi De May, with Jaccoulet at the helm (Aztec Musique as well and that’s apparently a pretty big deal in the Zouk world) and I think a lot of people are going to impressed, including yours truly, despite the fact that the album doesn’t necessarily pan out as I may have imagined. Le Moi De May was also kind of a surprise of sorts as, although I had heard a bit of new music from someone who I identified in my head as Goldee (turns out that I was right in my assumptions, by the way), I just wasn’t making the connection (and I hadn’t seen the video) that an album was inevitable. Had I done so, you, who read my blog, would have known instantly, as I would have been shouting it into your consciousness at every turn because, now, a Goldee album is a big deal if you love Zouk and if you’ve read this far into this review, clearly you do. So how does it go? Well, it’s not the 99.9% Reggae-Zouk/Zouk-Reggae hybrid album that I may have been hoping for, although that does still go on in Le Moi De May, but what it is something that builds on what I suggested is the other musical quality that Goldee has. Her music is VERY catchy and damn near addictive at spots. This ain’t your daddy’s Zouk, is what I’m trying to say.
The album is kind of strange actually. Maybe someone who really knows Zouk, unlike myself, would tell you differently, but something I found interesting even before I began to actually dig into the album for the sake of this review is that, although there are a few tunes which fall under the category of what I typically know as Zouk music (and that is Goldee’s base style, admittedly), even they don’t sound quite ‘normal’ to my ears. The first sound my ears here on Goldee’s brand new debut album Le Moi De May is the very first single to the album, ‘Un Rêve, Une Idée’. The opener is EXACTLY what I mean when I say that an otherwise typically vibed Zouk tune kind of changes when put in front of Goldee. If you take any other artist (even some more talented than Goldee), the song, while it will definitely still be very good (and this one borders on being spectacular), but it’ll be far more pedestrian and definitely not as colourful and SWEET as it is here. The tune rather casually walks near the top of tunes you’ll hear on Le Moi De May and it took me quite awhile to get to the second track. When I did, however, I found an even greater tune in ‘Chaque Jour’ [’Everyday‘]. Chaque Jour is DAZZLING! After you hear the opener, where the vibe that sticks in your head is probably the added (male) backing singer, here, you’ll remember this CRAZY melody which absolutely grips its claws into this sweet swinging backdrop. Chaque Jour is definitely the best new tune I hear on the album and in Goldee’s very brief time, it’s just as definitely of her very best. The next tune up is the clever ‘Version Féminine’ which takes a bit too long to get going (in my opinion), but when it does and BLOWS up, it develops into this kind of addictive and ERRATIC poppish sounding Zouk vibes which you can’t get out of your head (you’ll literally (YOU - big grown ass man) be sitting there singing “Version Féminine, Version Féminine” right alongside Goldee) and caps off a stellar start to the album and I’m now more curious even than when it started.
There were a few tunes that I was familiar with on Le Moi De May, on paper, even before I listened to it. Two of them, as I said, I knew from the strong compilation West Indeez Coast (which was chockfull of Reggae, Dancehall, Zouk and Soca) (the same damn album had Sizzla and Goldee on it) ‘Comme Du Wine’ which features E.Sy Kennenga (a singer from out of ‘Nina who is reportedly about to drop his own project) (definitely looking forward to that) and ‘Never Leave’ alongside young Jamaican veteran, Nicky B. Between the two I still prefer Never Leave (as you might imagine), however, it’s best you keep an eye and an ear out for Kennenga as the youth is loaded in potential and just may prove to be a future star (and both tunes are well solid anyway). And, of course, there’re the heavy hitters, Pointe Des Nègres and a remix of Baby Fly. The version of Baby Fly on Le Moi De May actually sounds a lot like the ‘MF Remix’ on the Remix album and not so much like the juiced up Diwali riddim-ish backed original which I know and love so much. This version is still outstanding and definitely not to be missed. However, it is that teeny tiny bit of space which spurs on Pointe Des Nègres to becoming my absolute favourite tune on the album. The tune is SPECTACULAR and, somewhere in that vast and complicated setting, I swear I hear a ‘Zouk one-drop’, I’ve always heard it and it’s always been beautiful. Here; no exception. I’d also heard the tune ‘Haw’. It was actually released as a single not too long prior to the album dropping and I THINK I heard it on the radio awhile back. Haw isn’t a great tune, but it still has a very unique vibes to it (especially when it develops) and it’s a very ‘visual’ tune and I can imagine Goldee might be slapping a nice video on the tune at some point in the future, if she hasn’t done so already. I had also heard the beautiful closer/title track for the album, which is a VERY interesting tune. It kind of features Goldee going all fast chat, singjay-ish, Mr. Vegas style (no, she doesn’t sound like Vegas, thankfully, but in her own way, there’s a comparison) and I could just as easily see a video for that one as well (the riddim playing on that one is very nice, but you have to REALLY vibe it to catch it all). Of the completely new stuff (outside of Chaque Jour) a couple of tunes definitely caught my ear. ‘La Avec Moi’ [‘Here With Me’] had to work extra hard had to do so, but it eventually won me over. The nice tune also features producer MF (your joke here), who chimes in, Roger Troutman style, throughout. ‘Le Mur’ is a similar tune which definitely had to grow on me a bit, as it comes off almost ANNOYINGLY simple (if there is such a thing), but apparently I enjoy such a thing because, after about spin number ten or so, I now rank Le Mur [‘The Wall’] as one of my absolute favourites on Le Moi De May. The same could be said, although not that precise level, about the tune which you’ll hear if you let things continue after Le Mur, ‘Je Taime Mais’. This very clever and very ‘quiet’ (somehow it can manage to be a Zouk tune that’s very quiet and still very neo-OPERA-ish, simultaneously) (only Goldee) tune basically comes out of nowhere and when it’s done, you’re still not quite sure what happen on the pseudo love song (I love you, but not quite). ‘Si Yo Di’w’, on the other hand, didn’t have to work as hard to grab my attentions and affections AT ALL. The tune is very much that sensationally addictive French Caribbean swing you’ll hear on so many different vibes and is, nowadays at least (hasn’t always been like that), sweet music to my ears personally and having been vibing a lot of Boukman Eksperyans (especially lately), Si Yo Di’w is HARD and one of my favourites on the album. And lastly, ‘Deux Minutes’ is a tune I’ m actually still working on. I’m not quite sure what to make of it (despite having heard the tune well over fifteen times by this point), but I find myself leaning further and further into the positive side of things. Perhaps more importantly is the fact that Deux Minutes sparks a streak of tunes which include the Baby Fly remix, Never Leave and finally the title track which send things out on a very very high note.
Overall, I do take a bit of personal gratification out of seeing this album and writing this review because she was, in fact, the very first ‘New Artist’ that I featured on my blog and, on top of that, it’s two years now I’ve been listening to Goldee’s music altogether. After awhile, I thought that the album (which was supposed to come soon after the Remix EP, I believe) had been shelved, so when I finally dug into Le Moi De May, as I said, although it was kind of a surprise, it was a very welcome one indeed. And as far as I’m concerned, even though Goldee didn’t prove to be the complete genre-bending force that I may have advertised her as, she’s every bit the most unique Zouk artist around that I know of. Le Moi De May is the first of hopefully MANY just as strong (and she can do better I believe) statements of her individuality in a genre often mired in a ‘warehouse’ production (making young female singer after young female singer) type of appeal. They don’t make them like her everyday.
Rated 4.25/5
BCaribean/Aztec Musique
2009
