The Steel drum one (Waiting For Cousteau - Jean-Michel Jarre)

Member Name: raypdaley182

Product:	Waiting For Cousteau - Jean-Michel Jarre
Date:	13/11/08 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Part ambient, part steel drum

Disadvantages: The ambient track can get a bit boring

Waiting for Cousteau. It's been jokingly refered to by some fans as "the underwater album" and "music for deep sea divers" (an in-joke that only Jarre fans who own "Supermarkets" will get, sorry).

It's a complete departure from the albums Jean-Michel had previously produced and has a very big Caribbean influence with lots of steel drum backing (played very well across the entire album by The Amoco Renegades) and track one will sort the fans from the philistines as only REAL fans will hear the samples from Moon Machine and the riff from Deserted Palace.

Go back and listen to track 1 real carefully and if you've heard either Moon Machine or Deserted Palace more than 3 times before you should really be able to spot them, otherwise hang your head in shame at having previously not spotting them. Personally I clocked them on my very first listen to the album on the bus on the way home from buying it.

It's very much the kind of track you'd expect to hear if you went to The Notting Hill Carnival but The Amoco Renegades are one of the oldest steel drum bands around so it sounds like Jean-Michel decided he wanted to work with the best when he finally explored this genre.

I'm more a fan of Calypso 2 as I used to go running to it and found it very motivational and it made for some very good long distance training runs around the roads of High Wycombe.

The album itself is of course named after Jean-Michel's fellow frenchman Jaques Cousteau, the world famous diver and sea explorer. The original title was supposed to be Cousteau On the Beach but Jaques thought all beaches were enviromental distasters.

Calypso 3 is the September of this album (the track everyone hated on Revolutions) but thats just my opinion, I'm not that big on slow anthemic style tracks. I generally find myself thinking of the theme to the 80's tv show Triangle when I hear Calypso 3, and not in a good way either.

Sections of the album were performed live during Jarre's Concert For Tolerance in Paris and the title track was used to test speakers before the concert started. As far as Jarre albums go its a bit of a weird one but has a few decent tracks and their nice and upbeat and incredibly lively (which is pretty unusual as Jarre's music goes).

It's worth at least a few listens on its novelty value alone, the title track makes for great ambient background music if you just want to relax. Calypso 1 is brilliant on a hot summers day.

Summary: Jarre goes Caribbean