New Music 2009 - Major labels and foreign language music.

Don't say that I didn't warn you because I did so yesterday. Why am I suddenly being positive about some major label releases? That is easy to answer and, really quite selfishly, because they are releasing music that I want to listen to and I have no problem with that whether it is self-released or done under the auspices of a major label.

I have no problem with foreign-language music either and have posted about this before. I've got most of the released recorded output of both and so, on that basis, I don't reckon I'm taking much of a risk here!

Strange to relate that Shakira is here, but with the album that is mostly in English although her native language is Spanish (and three albums with major releases in that language alone), but the all-Spanish album is this...

She is Canadian, of Portuguese origin, but has chosen to release her fourth album entirely in Spanish and the reviews that I have read, of both these albums, are glowing. If you have a open mind about new music, and given the kind of music I like, you can probably see why they are both on my wish list.

Not that I have any details, yet alone album art, but another to watch out for, and another Canadian singer/songwriter on a mission to surprise, is the album 'Joy' by Fefe Dobson (21 Records) and failing that try this instead.

For the background to this, her third album, which I said I would buy even if I had heard nothing from it, see this link:
http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2009/02/driving-to-idaho-what-happened-to.html

Jem is Down To Earth again...

Who made up all the rules?
We follow them like fools!
Believe them to be true
Don't care to think them through.

I'm sorry, so sorry
I'm sorry it's like this.
I'm sorry, so sorry
I'm sorry we do this.

Part of the lyric of They (2004).

Some time ago I wrote a post, Asleep Again?, wondering what had happened to the artist Jem. It is now confirmed that her second album will be released by ATO Records, initially in the US, on September 16.

Down To Earth, not to be confused with the 1979 Rainbow album of the same name, is already on order based both on my continued liking for her 2004 début album Finally Woken, which was one of the first handful of albums I ever reviewed and I stand by what I wrote then, and the fact that Lester Mendez (Shakira Dónde Están Los Ladrones and others) has been involved in the production of this album. Stranger still is that, perhaps because Jem is now resident in California, some in the US are portraying her as their new best export to us here in the UK.

It will certainly be a good trick if she can do it, not least because she was brought up in Penarth (Glamorgan) and the other UK female solo artist currently making headway in the US is Duffy, with her album Rockferry, and she comes from Nefyn, a small town on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd. While their music is very different indeed what we have here is two singers, from almost opposite corners of Wales, neither of whose music is noticeably inspired by traditional Welsh music. It is not that Wales is a vast land but neither is it crowded; at 8022 sq. miles it is about 10% smaller in area but has only 30% of the population of New Jersey.

Why buy foreign language music?

My first response, I have to say, is simply "Well why not?" and to be honest I'm quite happy with it.

It isn't, unfortunately, always a sufficient answer to a question that I'm asked surprisingly often and sometimes even by friends that I might have suspected knew better! I think this is actually mainly a matter of perception - that such music will somehow be "difficult" therefore, by default, it will require a special effort to appreciate.
There certainly is music that falls into that category, and I can understand why many wish to avoid the effort it entails, but is just as likely to be sung in English. As far as I'm concerned music is for fun and sometimes I give up on artists that I thought I might like for no better reason than the fact that, when it comes to decision time, I decide I simply don't care for their music; but I don't find that foreign language music is overwhelmingly likely to fall into this category if it is of a genre that I generally like.

I say this for two reasons:

• We have all known each other long enough to be happy to take what comes and only to opine that "This album is utter s**t!"if that is what really needs to be said, because it blatantly crosses some unspoken boundary (and we even tend to be fairly forgiving about those) without giving or taking offence. It happens rarely but, as we have all been on both the 'giving' and the 'receiving' end at one time or another, so there there is a certain equity too.
• They are generally quite aware of most of my musical foibles (but clearly not this one) - however some of them also secretly like Rachel Stevens' solo albums. I know exactly who you are and of your irrational, entirely self-inflicted, guilt - that's why the CDs tend to be in the car when appropriate!

The same suspects however generally profess not to listen to song lyrics, but if I play a foreign language album regardless of how non-foreign it sounds, you can be pretty certain that it will be commented on before the end of the second track at the latest. The first track might sometimes get away with it, I suppose, due to inattention or possibly the thought that it might have been merely some artistic "experiment" but clearly lyrics do matter as part of the song as a whole (which perhaps makes some people's equally negative attitude towards modern instrumental music understandable) but maybe not particularly as regards their actual meaning?
I own quite a lot of music, whether whole albums or just individual songs, sung in a variety of mostly European languages from Icelandic and Welsh to French and Spanish. The obvious question now is which is my favourite?
When it comes to studio albums, and for start to end listening pleasure it beats Camille - Le Fil into second place, there is still only one real contender:

Dónde Están Los Ladrones? Shakira, 1999.

It was also the first album that I purchased without ever having heard so much as a single track taken from it (something I now however quite often do without thinking twice about it) - so the fact that it was sung entirely in Spanish hardly seemed relevant at the time . I then reviewed it almost five years ago. How time flies - it was one of my earliest efforts at reviewing and the first to tackle a foreign language album - but I still wouldn't change a thing I wrote then and that is surely the sign of a really solid album; one that has staying power.
Here is that review, complete and original, as it is still to be found on amazon.co.uk. It has dated in the meantime, but the ways are an interesting reflection on the passing of five years in the story of pop music...

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
An album not to be dismissed!, 27 April 2002

I like 'Laundry Service', and happen to think that 'Suerte' the Spanish version of the [UK] hit single 'Whenever, Wherever' is way better than the version in English. On the other hand I think 'Objection (Tango)' is magnificent! I don't speak Spanish, and therefore wondered if a whole album might be too much. I bought 'Dónde Están Los Ladrones?' anyway, and I'm very glad I did! Please let me digress for a moment. Shakira has often been compared to Britney in the popular press, but that is unfair to both of them. Britney sings songs written for her, and usually does so well. Skakira writes her own lyrics and music, so she can set her own musical agenda, and her albums therefore comprise many influences without seeming disconnected. Without the added distraction of two languages, this is perhaps more obvious on 'Dónde Están Los Ladrones'. It may seem a strange comparison, but it is the same sort of accomplishment that Dido achieved with 'No Angel'. Both are brilliant, but not directly comparable! My favourite tracks on the album? Dónde Están Los Ladrones (up-beat, as summer beckons), and the bitter 'Inevitable'! Both made me reach for a Spanish-English dictionary. My least favourite is 'Ojos así' which appears in two versions on this album, and again in English as 'Eyes like yours' on the album 'Laundry Service'."

I know what you are thinking, and I was sceptical too.
I like 'Laundry Service', and happen to think that 'Suerte' the Spanish version of the hit single 'Whenever, Wherever' is way better than the version in English. On the other hand I think 'Objection (Tango)' is magnificent!
I don't speak Spanish, and therefore wondered if a whole album might be too much. I bought 'Dónde Están Los Ladrones' anyway, and I'm very glad I did!
Please let me digress for a moment. Shakira has often been compared to Britney in the popular press, but that is unfair to both of them. Britney sings songs written for her, and usually does so well.
Skakira writes her own lyrics and music, so she can set her own musical agenda, and her albums therefore comprise many influences without seeming disconnected. Without the added distraction of two languages, this is perhaps more obvious on 'Dónde Están Los Ladrones'. It may seem a strange comparison, but it is the same sort of accomplishment that Dido achieved with 'No Angel'. Both are brilliant, but not directly comparable!
My favourite tracks on the album? Dónde Están Los Ladrones (up-beat, as summer beckons), and the bitter 'Inevitable'! Both made me reach for a Spanish-English dictionary. My least favourite is 'Ojos así' which appears in two versions on this album, and again in English as 'Eyes like yours' on the album 'Laundry Service'.