Fool’s Gold, the record label, the movie or the song from Stone Roses? Neither. Actually, a band. In a polluted environment filed with musical releases of similar cultural inspiration, words like African and Hebrew draw attention like new exotic words in relation with musical inspiration and foundation for an album.
The self entitled album from Fool’s Gold, as a whole, came out as a rather libertine movement wanting to prove that different instruments and styles put together can make good impression. Even if most of the time the lyrics are quite romantic (and sometimes funny ‘I’m trapped in air conditioning’), the rest of them you won’t understand (some lyrics are kept in Hebrew). Yet, the lyrical impressionism is very effective, even-leveled with the complexity of the melodies.
The album’s tracks are sort of divided in terms of tempo: one sort would be the slight merry Moroccan feeling Surprise Hotel, Poseidon and Night Dancing and the rest of the tracks, that lie in a tender melodic flow, with still Islamic tendency such as Nadine (whose chorus is reminiscent of non other than Dolly Parton’s Jolene). Yet in all of them the percussion is of clear African touch and there is also an omnipresent trumpet that graces the melodies. And this is done in a quite pondered way, never feeling musically displaced or ruining the harmony of all the other instruments.
The musical complexity, so many instruments and sound variety make this album a wide cultural exposé. It is to be admired that, for an album far from original in terms of oriental style, it still manages to be without any doubt a breath of fresh air with the most optimistic musical sensation.
*picture courtesy of Amazon
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