[.ca] Ma Fleur

buy the import:
I don't understand why they would change the track order for the North American release and cut out one of the best tracks (Child Song). Do yourself a favor and get the import. This track order makes for an album that never quite seems to hit its stride. Strange how much the order can affect an album, but this just drags. Album of the year for me, the UK version is a masterpiece.

Exquisite pleasures and many kinds of emotions.:
It took five years for the follow up to 2002's highly acclaimed "Every Day". "Ma Fleur" once again sees Jason Swincoe draw on the talents of a disparate group of performers, often from jazz backgrounds, to create the subtle, swelling orchestral sounds that reference the constructive forms of film soundtracks and prove devilishly difficult to describe.As mentioned, there are quite a few jazz influences in here, but they also owe a debt to trip-hop pioneers like The Orb and indeed to Drum and Bass in places. Small wonder that Swincoe's loose band of performers also include turntablists like Patrick Carpenter. "Ma Fleur" is billed as the soundtrack for a film that hasn't yet been made, which would clearly be a weepie if it ever were. Themes of lost love and mourning run through "Ma Fleur" in thick stripes. Because Swincoe is interested in creating moods and conveying emotions, he structures his albums, as you might expect, to tell a story. He employs a wide range of singing talent who represent the viewpoints of characters in his tales. The track, "To Build a Home", a grand, billowing piano ballad which could draw admiring sighs from Antony Hegarty or Chris Martin, is as immediate as it gets. Elsewhere, moonlighting vocalists, including Lou Rhodes and Fontella Bass, are like shapes in the twilight, softly merging with nuanced arrangements which evoke the maverick work of David Axelrod, Charles Stepney and Talk Talk's Mark Hollis. As said before, the veteran singer Fontella Bass (best known for the vocals on "Rescue Me"), who also appeared on "Every Day", returns to lend her cracked gospel vocals to the slow and elegiac "Breathe", and "Familiar Ground". There's a sense of space; an absence of clutter; an enrapturing hush. Neither jazz nor trip-hop nor any other label you might care to slap on it, "Ma Fleur" delineates an immensely moving, utterly distinct night-time world which is a pleasure to inhabit. There is the odd moment when things do flirt with pretentiousness, or merely sound like soundtrack fillers (the title track, in particular), but Jason Swinscoe has otherwise created an absolutely breathtaking experience that really does quietly move you through a number of exquisite emotions.

Pure musical beauty:
I would actually give this album 4 and a half stars if I could, because I only very rarely give albums five stars. But that does not in any way take away from how amazing this record really is. (Though I agree with the other reviewer, you DEFINITELY need to get the UK release of this. The US release does kinda take away from the overall effect of the album) I'm a total newb to The Cinematic Orchestra. I adore Patrick Watson's music. Of course, I heard the "To Build a Home" single, which I think is very nice, it isn't amazing, but it's a very nice listen. Nice enough to get me to look into this group. Then I was intrigued enough to get this album (which luckily enough I picked the UK version because I thought it was weird that in the US they would completely change the order and omit a song. Why?????) Anyway to make a long story short, the album blew me away. It's just a perfect mix of keyboard, orchestral instruments, electronics, drums (the drums are scarce but man are they ever effective, wow) and voice (Patrick Watson does such a wonderful job on his songs and the other singers are also very good). The music is very mellow for the most part, and if you're a fan of low-fi, ambient kind of music, but hate that most of this type of music out there is bland and uninspired, this album is definitely for you. This is just a totally inspired, original record which (and I know this sounds really corny, but...) just creates so many different emotions. Sorry to have rambled on like that, but this one just brought out that excitement in me. I'm actually listening to it as we speak and, well, wow. I love it. I know I seem really biased, but I do hope this was a fairly good interpretation/description of the album, because 100 people can give an album 5 stars but that doesn't mean everyone will like it (and it is a fairly pricey one to get...)

• That Home
• Familiar Ground
• Ma Fleur
• Music Box
• Time and Space
• Prelude
• As the Stars Fall
• Into You
• Breathe
• To Build a Home