Raï superstars

The long-awaited new album by Faudel is rather over-produced and without the freshness of his amazing debut album Baïda. >>Well, that's my first impression. Also, bad cover design! Just like the music inside, his face on the cover is heavily retouched and photoshop-air brused. And what's up with the font choice. But it does have some good cuts: "Salsa Rai" is actually quite a nice salsa song with Faudel's Arabic singing.

The debut album of Fares is a big event for French Raï world. As Raï professor informs me, he's an elder brother of Faudel. He's got mature deep voice, and it's well produced album, I'd say.

You may know nothing of Raï, but you must have heard of Khaled, "the King of Raï." This album, Kutché (released in 1988), is a Raï classic, a masterpiece. I recently realized I didn't own this CD. You can really enjoy Khaled with his juiciest voice on this album.

02/09

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