About one million pop songs are produced and released every year by the music
industry. And this is just through the major labels. Another million are also
released by independent and smaller labels.
اضافة اعلان
The bad news is that today, you have to play 1,000
songs to hear a good one. The good news is that, given the huge annual
production, that very small proportion of good versus poor still results in a
reasonable number of tracks that are excellent and very enjoyable.
Canadian Charlotte Cardin definitely belongs to the
“good” category; even the very good. The 27-years singer-songwriter is a new
contributor to quality music in the crowded pop scene. Her first studio album,
Phoenix, was released last year and went all the way up to reach the number one
spot on the Canadian charts. It is currently one of the most played albums
Spotify, with tens of millions of streams and downloads for most of the tracks.
There are also interesting singles that were recorded outside the scope of the album.
Cardin creates a pleasant, distinctive mix of pop
and electro, with just a touch of jazz, or rather of blues. This kind of blend
would usually come as instrumental music, without vocals. Cardin’s work,
however, bears the unmistakable, essential, flavor of her voice. Taken alone,
her voice, the electro sound, and the jazzy-bluesy touch, may not be
exceptional, but the way they all come together is.
Anyone Who Loves Me, Meaningless, Dirty Dirty, Main
Girl, XOXO, Memento Interlude (interpreted in duet with rapper Dinos who hails
from Cameroon) are among the most attractive songs by this young artist. The
voice is balanced, easily hits the high notes, remains powerful, and is never
aggressive. There are accents of Amy Winehouse and of Nelly Furtado here and
there. Of Winehouse, Cardin has the bluesy expression, and of Furtado (her
fellow Canadian) the way she pronounces the words.
Another singer that Cardin reminds me of is Jain,
the French sensation who had a major hit in 2015 with the song titled Come. There
are some similarities between the two singers, including the rhythmical
patterns and the trendy way they cut and repeat the syllables of the lyrics.
Both artists use electro programming tools to generate their music, more
particularly the beat and the percussion parts.
Though she sings mainly in English, she sometime
does it in French. Faufile and Je Quitte are two such numbers. They reveal a
singer who has genuine spirit, inspired feeling, and gentle sensitivity, and
who, at the same time, is able to do a perfect delivery of the music in both
languages — she is Canadian after all!
Faufile is a slow, deeply moving number, interpreted
with a lot of soul, that conveys a sense of musical maturity, despite the
relatively young age of the musician. The dominant piano part is superbly
played.
Whether in bluesy, slow songs, like Sad Girl, that
put you in a nostalgic mood from the onset, or in others that irresistibly make
you want to get up and dance, like California, for example, Cardin does it
right each time, creating the ideal sonic atmosphere, with the relevant
accents. The tracks of California, both instrumental and vocal, are arranged
with an equal amount of new and more traditional sounds.
My favorite piece on the Phoenix album is XOXO. In
addition to being a superb song, it features a voice that sounds like a man
singing in duet with Cardin. It is actually her own voice, with the pitch
electronically lowered down a little to make it resemble that of a male
vocalist, and that she smartly uses to give the impression that someone else is
singing with her.
They reveal a singer who has genuine spirit, inspired feeling, and gentle sensitivity, and who, at the same time, is able to do a perfect delivery of the music in both languages.
Often, the current pop production consists of either
talented vocalists singing less-than-average, boring, songs or of songs that
are good but are interpreted by mediocre singers. Cardin does nothing like that,
she writes finely crafted songs, served with her excellent singing skills.
Whereas some of the songs of the Canadian musician
appeal to a wide range of listeners from all ages and walks of life, her
general style is focused on the under-40 group.
Like with virtually any album released today, the
quality from track to track is uneven. With Phoenix, seven of the 13 songs
deserve kudos, an achievement considered to be well above average.
It remains to be seen whether Cardin is the next
mega pop star and is here to stay. Her music comes with a substantial amount of
artistic originality, but perhaps not as much as what, for instance, Billie
Eilish has already brought us. In the meantime, Cardin delivers new songs that
are pleasant to listen to, sung with an attractive voice.
Jean-Claude Elias is a computer engineer and a classically
trained pianist and guitarist. He has been regularly writing IT articles,
reviewing music albums, and covering concerts for more than 30 years.
Read more Opinion and Analysis
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
