Zazie Album: “Rodeo”

Zazie, who has produced excellent albums in the past, has released a masterpiece! From the smooth "La dolce vita" trough the melodic "La pluie et le beau temps" to the rocker "Toc Toc Toc" to the folky "Excuse-moi" to the heart-wrenching "Rodeo" (about drug addiction), this album touches all of the senses. This collection of songs is wonderful. I listen to this CD repeatedly. Amust have for anyone who likes French music!

Zazie has an excellent voice - smooth, expressive, sensual, French...

I can only second the positive comments already made about this fine artist and add that it is a crying shame that talentless and expressionless singers and singers of generic Western music sell millions of albums and performers like Zazie go unnoticed. There ain't no justice.

Listen to "J'aime j'aime pas", "Excuse-Moi" and the very smooth "La Dolce Vita" for a cross-section of the sort of music on display on this album.

This is one of those albums I listen to when I want to hear a good singer and some strong but smooth beats. A very classy and entertaining album.

Zazie is just one of the most amazing and talented females of French pop. It's a shame that she's unknown in America. Her music is just fantastic, and Zazie is an incredible artist who seems to always change her musical image, making it more fun, exciting, and innovative after each album! This is one of her best next to Zen.

Her voice and musical arrangements are as top notch as ever, but as far as the songs are concerned, they are at best, forgettable. They should have put at least as much effort on the songs as they did on the cover of the album. Bought it on Amazon, and sold it back on Amazon. The prices I see for a used copy are too high considering you can get her earlier CDs for much less and get much more satisfaction.

Zazie will probably never be known in the English-speaking world, but in native France, she is something of an institution. She is especially effective as a vocalist and lyricist, more than a musician. At first listen, many of her earlier albums ("Je, Tu, Ils" in particular) seem like generic French Pop, and they may have been so, but in her later years (the singer is now in her mid-40s), Zazie discovered a side of herself that bordered on near mysticism, and all of her work since then has been highly creative and really, really good.

2004's "Rodeo" is one such album. Its an eclectic mix of pop-rock songs with an Eastern Influence. Zazie's fascination with India, in particular, influenced the making of the album, and it shows. On the plaintive ballad "La Pluie et le Beau Temps" ("The Rain and the good times"), she evokes a wistful combination of The Beatles and Feist. On "Lola Majeure" she turns up the action quotient a bit more, and the stunning "Doolididom" is made for singing along to. Zazie knows a good tune when she hears it - and this album has those tunes in spades. There is something about a girl singing in French, and even better when every song is SO different - the genres here vary from soul, rock, fusion and just good old fashioned regular pop.

Zazie's Indian Fascination also resulted in her most recent album, 2007's "Totem" being as good as it is. In fact, do try to get the Rodeo Special Edition (CD+DVD) from Amazon's French website - the DVD is an hour-long film, set completely in India, with Zazie performing each song in a lavish Bollywood-style mounted production. They must have spent a bomb on this - we have Zazie worshipping in a temple, impressing a young Indian Prince with her highly stylized and choreographed dancing, and ultimately getting drenched in the Indian Monsoons while singing about lost love. This is much more beautiful than my descriptions, so do yourself a favor and pick up the Special Edition of this album - its really worth it!

If you liked this, do check out her "Totem" from 2007, and another underrated album, "Zen" from 1995. All of her albums are essential purchases, in my opinion.

1. Dolce Vita

2. J'Aime J'Aime Pas

3. Excuse Moi

4. Toc Toc Toc

5. Pluie et le Beau Temps

6. Lola Majeure

7. Rodéo

8. Slow

9. Doolididom

10. Sauver le Monde

11. Oui

12. J'Arrive