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Editorial Review:
It's no surprise that Morcheeba's fourth album Charango has been given a summer release to catch the chillout boom. Since bursting into the charts and national consciousness with 1998's sophomore album Big Calm, the trio have carved a veritable niche as purveyors of evocative nuevo-lounge and dreamy ambience. While 2000's Fragments Of Freedom saw the South Londoners' first tentative step out of the "coffee table" pigeonhole, Charango is the sound of them relaxing, infusing influences such as hip-hop, country and cinematic scores into a joyous blend of humour, romance and soothing melancholy. There are vintage moments such as the lush lethargy of "Slow Down" and the string-laden single "Otherwise" but some of the most interesting tracks are the result of collaborations. Having written "What New York Couples Fight About" and "Undress Me Now", Lambchop frontman Kurt Wagner lends his achingly-emotive vocal to the former, while providing Skye with some charming lyrical raunch on the latter; "Using Your Mind / Imagine Our Skin / Joined At The Hip / Joined From Within". "Women Lose Weight" meanwhile is far less romantic; featuring rapper Slick Rick's dulcet tones, it's a tongue-in-cheek tale of a husband driven to murder by his overweight wife. Recorded soon after Rick was released from prison for shooting his cousin, it's of dubious taste if nonetheless entertaining. Adventurous and inspired yet dripping with Morcheeba's trademark languid rhythms and tranquil melodies, Charango is at the very least a return to form and arguably their best work to date. --Christopher Barrett
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Now that's better.... Album number four for Morcheeba.
A stylish effort with far more class to it than the coffee-table blandness of its predecessor.
Stand-out track is "What New York Couples Fight About" featuring the wonderful Kurt Wagner of Lambchop. Wagner adds his delicate vocals to this tune which unfolds very well. "Way Beyond Our Means" is charming and "Sao Paolo" is a nice track which adds a touch of class to proceedings.
Elsewhere the usual sweet yet inconsequential sounds prevail.
A step in the... more info
Buy This This is a fun and slickly produced album. It is well put together but without suffering from the over-production that it's predecessor "Fragments of Freedom" suffered from. The song that stands out most on this album is the uptempo-comedic Slick Rick collaboration "Women Lose Weight".
Most of the album however is more chilled and down tempo, and wouldnt seem out of place on the trendy 'chilled' compilations that have been doing the rounds recently.
As you can always expect from Morcheeba there are some... more info
Just sit down and relax This new album by Morcheeba is very much different to their previous one, Fragments of Freedom. Charango is very much more laid back; it’s the kind of CD you would put on as soon as you came back from a hard day’s work simply because it is so smooth and gentle to listen to. Pressing play releases the first beautiful song, Slow Down, which secretes your senses all over the body. The ambient, relaxed mood carries on into the next three songs and you start to fell a slight up in tempo and vocals. This is a... more info
Brilliant I haven't heard the other albums but i definitely love this one...very smooth and chilled but also very funny, especially "Women Lose Weight". Very much a great album for summer outings and general chill out sessions
