Best Of Natacha Atlas

NATACHA ATLAS – “Best Of”
Mantra, 2005

Arabic/Western pop fusion from one of the genre’s most popular artists, full of the catchy dance beats and sexy vocal swoops and hiccups that made her famous. Atlas not only selected the songs herself, she also tweaked them with new edits, remixes, and even some re-recorded vocal tracks. Combining material from all her solo albums, this is a good intro for new listeners but should be of great interest to her existing fans as well.

FO’S PICKS: 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 13, 14. Hidden track at end also great

1. 5:07 – midtempo: slinky vocals & inst snippets swim in a synth bassline
2. 4:27 – a French pop classic: some great backing riffs & wounded vocals
3. 5:58 – funky Moroccan reggae: male lead vox, Atlas does sex-kitten thing
4. 5:14 – breezy trad. Arabic pop melody + big synth chords, pretty vocal
5. 5:06 – relaxed tempo: sweet vocal, heavy rhythm, swirly synths & strings
6. 3:56 – mysterious intro, slammin’ Arabic dancefloor groove. Duet vox
7. 3:41 – very different techno-remix of #1: twinkly bits, glitchy bits…
8. 4:08 – Natacha Atlas: Bond girl!!! Stick with Nancy Sinatra’s original.
9. 3:05 – edgy beats, Atlas trades off with hip-hoppish Arabic male vocal
10. 5:53 – very cool groove, nifty harmonium and sloooow lead vocal
11. 3:42 – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ classic doesn’t rise above novelty status
12. 3:37 – James Brown classic fares better, still gimmicky but cool & sexy
13. 2:40 – sinister booty-shaking beat, good mix of elements, moaning vox
14. 5:01 – stripped down: cool riffs, slinky beat, great vox… catchy catchy
15. 5:10 – dubbed-out version of #1, lots of reverb, isolated instruments, etc
16. 4:17 – low, dramatic music, French vocal; drawn out and atmospheric

– approx 3 minutes of silence before “hidden track” –

16a. excellent live performance: uptempo groove (more straight-up Arabic pop sound than the rest of the album). About 5 minutes long. Check it out.

[Fo] – July 2005