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Raoui
by Souad Massi
Product Group: Music
Studio: Umvd Import
ISBN: B000056PI9
EAN: 0731454855020
UPC: 731454855020
Audio CD
Original Release Date: 2001-06-05
Release Date: 2001-07-03
SKU: 08010105
Condition: Like New Like New
Comments: Audio CD in like new condition with no scratches. Very nice jewel case with like new art work and labels.
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Editorial Reviews
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Album Description
2001 debut album for the world music artist featuring 14 tracks. Wrasse.
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Customer Reviews
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The voice of magic
Rating  (5)
Date: 2005-06-28
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
Depicting the melancholic tone of an Algerian urban story teller "Raoui", Souad Massi opened her second album with a heart wrenching tune consisting of nothing more than the sweetness of her voice and an a gently finger plucked acoustic guitar.
Massi is one of Algeria's most authentic and daring new artists, her work is a live example of how a musician can borrow from the sounds of foreign cultures and combine with his/her own roots to create a completely new direction that manages not to compromise the innovation of the new nor the authenticity of the old.
The album featured songs about different subject; while Bledi showed Massi's deep rooted passion for her adored Algeria, she delved into more into personal reflection with Hayati and Awham singing about illusions and a lover's betrayal, and extreme longing in Khsara Alek, Nekrah Alkeb and the sweet lullaby Matibkeech.
While some of the songs featured Algerian traditional instruments, the element of funky modern guitar and bass carried the rest of the album. And Massi, who is also an accomplished guitar player, made her presence very noticeable with some unusual rhythms and melody progressions.
Souad Massi is a good sign that reassures faith in the existence of exceptional talents in the Arab world, and the fact that she has established a decent fan base in Jordan and the Arab world, although her work receives virtually no promotion in the region, is a valid proof that our listeners do in fact seek quality and are not completely under the control of dogmatic commercial mass production and promotion. Massi should be taken as an incentive to all Arab musicians who try to present original material that doesn't follow the junk food standards of modern Arabic pop.
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Arabic folk-rock poet
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-12-16
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a recording that intrigues and impresses and burns slowly until you come back to it and play it again, and over and over again - at least, that's the effect it had on me. It is the wonderful multicultural music, as well as Massi's crystal-clear, melodic, often melancholy voice, that appeals so powerfully. She sings in Arabic, yet you instantly feel a connection, and long to know the specific verbal meanings of the songs. The lyrics are printed inside the album - in French when I bought it a year or two ago, though now I understand the copies on sale on England have them in English. But the French is not that difficult - the words are simple yet profound, clearly influenced by singer-songwriters of a Western folk tradition even though sounding so Arabic. Songs about love, about the state of her own country Algeria, about the world - understated and oblique like much good poetry.
Only one thing recently has been better than listening to Souad Massi's cds, and that was seeing her live - where the music and the whole performance is so vibrant and exciting. On stage, Massi's musical multiculturalism extends to the way she welcomes her musician friends on to the stage and sometimes vacates it for them. These include rock musicians as well as practitioners of the oud and other Middle Eastern instruments. The best introduction to her music remains this first album. This is the one that turned me into a fan - and a dedicated enough one to go and see her backstage after the concert! Look out for a forthcoming interview for www.3ammagazine.com, which she agreed to! And listen to this album. Massi first sang with a highly popular rock band in Algeria. She received death threats after the troubles in that land began in the 1990s. She was invited to appear at a concert in Paris, and has stayed on ever since.
"If I stopped speaking out", she says. "that would mean all the intellectuals they murdered had died in vain."
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Algerian folk at its best
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-03-10
7 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
If people have any knowledge of Algerian music it is usually through the very commercial pop of (Cheb)Khaled. In France Rai music is a popular form of dance music- a bit like Banghra in the UK. Massi's album is very different from the up-tempo pop of Rai. This is Algerian folk music. Most of the songs are quite slow, although one or two really crank it up a notch. The lyrics, some of which are in French and the rest of which are translated into French on the sleeve, are beautiful although usually quite sad- related as they are to the political difficulties in Algeria. The Oud, the distinctive instrument of much of Arab music, is ever-present here. The song 'Bladi' is exceptionally good. If you like this album check on Idir's album 'Identites'.
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Marry this CD!
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-02-17
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
I discovered this CD while in Paris and can't stop playing it. Get this disc immediately and crank up the volume!
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An unexpected delight. Banned in her native Algeria.
Rating (5)
Date: 2001-12-18
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
I can't get this CD out of my player. Every time I reach for the eject button, I hit play. Beautiful, sweet ballads, unique, catchy arrangements, gorgeously evocative vocals.You can feel the homesickness for her native Algeria in "Bladi." The driving arrangement of the uptempo gnawa-like "Amessa" shows the influence of her tenure in "Atakor", the popular Algerian hard-rock group whose music and performances got her fired from her government job. The wonderfully spare "Raoui" with only her voice and guitar. The range of expression and musical influences on this album is amazing. Buy this CD. You won't regret it.
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