Chelmi - Freestyle Connexion

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I've been looking all over for perfect album to start Hemlock Wine with. Something that people can compare to their everyday music, something that'd catch a wide audience, something normal (and hopefully in English). After a while of searching for an album I thought everybody would like, I realized that that's not what this blog is about.

Freestyle Connexion is one-of-a-kind French ska album.

One of the things about the ska and reggae genres I've always taken issue with is that the lyrics are generally not all that amazing. Maybe more people should just speak crazy moon talk instead of singing? Basically what I'm trying to get at is if I hadn't told you that it was french, odds would be that you'd never notice and you definitely don't have to speak french to enjoy this album.

The album starts strong with a very danceable track, discussing how he is not satisfied with world politics, namely the United States (Gasp! What a surprise! And in ska too?) The second track is a fairly generic, mostly English, pro-pot song, not amazing but defiantly not bad.

The third track is defiantly my favourite on the album, if just for the instrumentation. The percussion is more than your usual third-beat beat, flute solos fit in perfectly, and the guitar line just made me smile. It starts off a Capella, then comes in the band, and it eventually evolves into a three way dialogue between the two signers, and the flute.

OK, I guess this brings us to the last track. Don't listen to it. It's twenty minutes of the same thing, basically beat-boxing. To be honest, I'm not really sure what "good" beat-boxing sounds like. After fifteen minutes it gets a bit better, at least funnyish. I wont give it away.

So here it goes.

Pros:

• Fun
• Danceable
• Great instrumentation.
  

Cons:

• The Word "libéralisation" will make you laugh.
• The themes are fairly generic for the genre.
• The last song is 20 minutes long.
• It's in French
  

Summery: Three stars. Give it a chance.