World Music – WilfridWong.com

Love Psychedelico – Abbot Kinney – An Uplifting Album

Celebrating their 10 years of music career, the Japanese band Love Psychedelico has released a new album “Abbot Kinney”. I still like their debut “The Greatest Hits” the most (how appropriately titled!). But “Abbot Kinney” is growing on me. I guess I was looking for that dark melodic track “Last Smile” in this new album – like I have been searching on their previous albums – and couldn’t find any. Having said that, “Abbot Kinney” is a lot brighter, the tunes are a lot happier. It is mood uplifting and the album has a coherent feel. Even down to the very last song – their rendition of “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?”. Love Psychedelico is one of my favorite bands of all time. Their music style is unique. Below is the official sampler of their new album.

Vanessa Paradis’s Divinidylle – Creatively Classy … Sexy

Vanessa Paradis’s Divinidylle

Most non-French speaking people may recognize Vanessa Paradis as the partner of the American actor Johnny Depp and the mother of their daughter and son. Some of you may remember her as the girl who promoted Chanel’s fragrant Coco back in 1991. I certain remember her by her single “Joe le taxi” (1987) when she was 14. Despite having 20 years of music career, she has only released 5 studio albums. “Divinidylle” is 7 years in the making.

I like French music because it brings something fresh into my English music collection. There is something about French music that is hard to explain, something that doesn’t quite follow the usual formula of the English music scene. The melody sounds fresh, the way of singing sounds fresh, even the music arrangement sounds fresh. Especially “Divinidylle”, if you pay attention to each individual music track, there are full of little bits of creative moments scattered along the tracks. The entire album is consistent with memorable hooks. Vanessa Paradis took part in the writing of some of the songs and she sings well throughout “Divinidylle” – from her low range to light whispering to falsetto. Need not to say, I found her voice pretty sexy.

“Divinidylle” seems a bit short (35 minutes). But it is a perfect album to listen to in the evening on the couch surrounded by candle lights with a glass of wine – on your own or with your partner. Check out the song below called “Dès Que Je Te Vois”. If you like it, you may wish to try the single “Divinidylle”