Claude Fontaine
La Mer
Innovative Leisure
Nov 21, 2024 Web Exclusive
For her second album, La Mer, Los Angeles-based songwriter Claude Fontaine has picked up where her 2019 debut left off, melding tropicália, jazz, reggae, and French pop styles into a seductive montage, led at its center by Fontaine’s expressively sublime vocals.
And again Fontaine has brought with her a crack instrumental team that includes, among others, Jamaican guitarist Tony Chin, who has worked with reggae musicians of the highest renown, from Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer to Gregory Isaacs and numerous others, including bassist Robbie McQueen, one of the founders of reggae stalwarts Steel Pulse; and percussionist Gibi Dos Santos from Sergio Mendes’ band and drummer Rock Deadrick from Ziggy Marley’s.
As noted to above, La Mer is a glorious, global mix of styles. Just in the first three songs, the album transitions seamlessly from the Brazilian tropicália of “Vaquiero” to the gentle reggae pulse and lilt of “Love the Way You Love” and the ye-ye pop of “Green Ivy Tapestry,” melding the feel of the genres into one beautifully contemporary yet wonderfully anachronistic melange.
Written with and produced by the famed Lester Mendez, whose credits include a who’s who of global pop, from Shakira to Grace Jones and seemingly everything in between, the 12 songs on La Mer sound positively out of time, like a long lost classic. Turn the lights down low, pop the record on the turntable, and space out to the luxurious sounds of Claude Fontaine. (www.innovativeleisure.net)
Author rating: 7.5/10
Average reader rating: 7/10
Most Recent
Comments
Submit your comment
There are no comments for this entry yet.