5 (DRG Records, 2013)
With recordings like Paris Combo, Motifs, Living Room and Attraction to their credit, Paris Combo is back with 5, out now on the DRG Records label. Fashioned from lead vocalist Belle du Berry, guitarist Potzi, drummer, percussionist and vocalist Francois Jeannin, trumpeter, pianist and flugelhorn player David Lewis and contrabassist Emmanuel Chabbey, Paris Combo is a sleek, contemporary listen into that dishy, delightful sound particular to the French. Part cabaret, part jazz and part pop, Paris Combo offers up a sassy, seductive series of tracks on 5 that will listeners swooning and exclaiming with an accent.
Opening with the deliciously flirty “Je Te Vois Partout,” Paris Combo exudes a savvy sound replete with guitar, piano and some spine tingling brass lines fronted by Ms. Du Berry’s charming vocals. There’s plenty on 5 to please all kinds of fans, including the extravagant “Lux,” with its Middle Eastern licks and jazz soaked numbers like “Goodbye Pinocchio” and the silky “Morphee.” Ms. Du Berry’s vocals are so sultry on such tracks like “Les Cailloux Blancs” and “Fantome Adore” they’ll sneak up on and bite you on the neck … and you’ll enjoy it. Other delicious delights include the hopelessly catchy “Chaque Fois” and “Mediumisons.”
Ms. Du Berry relates the process of 5, “In 2006, we gave ourselves the luxury of taking a break from touring and recording so each of us could return to his or her individual musical sources – a breathing space to allow inspiration to happen.
Four years later, we reunited in a rehearsal studio – in Paris of course – and without even playing our previous repertoire, together we started composing new songs. The group’s chemistry was magic straightaway. Right from the first notes, the chords, the melodies, and the grooves sounded spontaneous and naturally like ‘Paris Combo.’ It was like a reunion with an old friend. The tone was set and we knew we would have fun co-writing our new material and exploring all the different aspects of the group’s identity – the ‘Paris Combo’ style.”
My advice is to banish all Francophobes from the vicinity and turn up the sound on the fabulous
5.
Buy 5
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
Good review. This album is one of my favorites, I have it on repeat in my car. Just saw them live recently, and I have to say, they are even better in person than on track. Amazing band!