St Germain - Boulevard
Wikipedia:
Boulevard is an album by French DJ Ludovic Navarre, released under the stage name St. Germain. It was originally released in the UK on July 28, 1995, but was later released in the USA March 26, 2002. The album is more dance music-oriented and relaxing compared to his 2000 hit album Tourist.
Review:
Picture a world where each and every French dance band was unflinchingly bad; where every Air or Cassius or even Phoenix never existed since every homegrown, starving musician looked to somebody like ATB instead of St. Germain. Luckily, this is but a piece of fiction. Because Ludovic Navarre created such a saintly pseudonym, employing deep house, tittering breaks, and down-tempo attitudes that -- in over-simplistic terms -- virtually invented the entire French house movement that has crossed over more times than a Diana Ross impersonator. The question is, does being first make you any good? Taking cues from acid jazz and its chin-stroking underground, songs like "Deep in It" or "Street Scene (4 Schazz)" seem to shyly respond, "yes." It's only the preponderance of an odd sense of a Frenchman aping American black music that starts to cause the most alarm. The loose jazz excursions such as "Sentimental Mood" carries all the emotional weight of a sewing needle and the choice of blues samples (while being years before Moby even caught onto the idea) feels contrived. The album may exude an atmosphere of a musician discovering a new genre hybridization, it just doesn't quite reach the maturity of a fleshed out idea. A landmark album? Yes. An album that lacks the loveliness of an Air or the inventiveness of an Etienne DeCrecy? Also, yes. Boulevard has been looked upon as the "essential" Revolver or What's Going On or Dig Your Own Hole piece of French house fans' record collections. It's only a small indignity that the music itself rarely reaches such heights of its comparisons.
Review by Dean Carlson
Album List:
St Germain - Boulevard (1995)
01 Deep In It (7:20)
02 Thank U Mum (4 Everything You Did) (12:34)
03 Street Scene (4 Shazz) (15:46)
04 Easy To Remember (9:40)
05 Sentimental Mood (10:20)
06 What's New? (7:45)
07 Dub Experience II (3:48)
08 Forget It (7:57)
St Germain - Boulevard (2002 re-release)
1. Deep In It (7:17)
2. Street Scene (4 Shazz) (15:43)
3. Sentimental Mood (10:16)
4. What's New (7:42)
5. Dub Experience II (3:45)
6. Forget It (7:56)
7. Soul Salsa Soul (10:36)
8. Alabama Blues (Todd Edwards Vocal Mix) (5:36)
Summary:
Country: France
Genre: Acid Jazz
Media Report:
Source: CD
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : ~700 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
