Big Orange Crayonmusical thingsVarious Artists Soiree Cocktail: An International Collection of Bossa Nova Tunes Les Disques Aquatic - distributed by Darla in the USA It's not really all that easy to precisely define what pop music is. At least not for me anyway, I'm sure there are people out there that can, but I'm not one of them so I'll pretend that it's a hard thing to do. Is Bossa Nova music pop music? Eh, who cares - this is a cool compilation. Assign it to whatever genre floats your boat. I've been thoroughly enjoying this disc since I got it and I'm trying to figure out a scenerio where lots of people would be listening to it at the same time. It's hard to find a place in society for tropical sounding retro pop, but I'm determined to find it! I suppose my headphones could count, but that's just for me, I want a group number of people listening to this at the same time... maybe if someone sent the indiepop-list on a cruise. The bands on this compilation are definitely indie pop bands, a lot of them also have songs on the Moshi Moshi comp from March records and also exist in the indie pop land in my brain because I have their own albums. These are also Bossa Nova songs, though. There's none of that "lets throw in a few nonstandard instruments and call ourselves something else" going on, the songs are distinctivly Bossa Nova. Not that I've listened enough of that kind of music to intelligently say anything about it. But this is very cool. I love the Cinnamon song (I always love the Cinnamon song. I also love their album both for the music and the fact that it's on orange vinyl.), and I can happily leave the whole thing running and imagine myself in someplace warmer and much more festive than Upstate New York. I also love Louis Phillippe's haunting and beautiful song, "Viens". Another thing that sticks in my mind is just how damn suave the sample in the Cherry Orchard song it... that guy is so obviously a playa. Actually I guess that's what this whole thing is: suave. A novel idea, too. So if you're at all interested in the idea of indie pop bands playing this kind of music, you're all set - this comp is wonderful. Total score: 811 out of 811 |