CD Review: Zap Mama - Supermoon

Supermoon. Get it? It's like "superstar", except for there are roughly 17 kajillion stars, and only one moon. On Earth, anyway. But, see, instead of being a boring old superstar (who are all pretty much alike), you can be a supermoon! Unique! And perhaps later, after you've recognized your own internal supermoondom (or is it supermoonhood?) we can all go hold hands and dance together in a field of daisies, and while we're at it, cure some major disease and solve world hunger issues and stuff.

Okay, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Or, just perhaps, projecting a little bit. But I'm in that kind of mood, because I just spent a couple of hours listening to Zap Mama's latest CD, Supermoon. It's not a bad album. It's musically pretty darn excellent, with guest appearances by Michael Franti, Meshell Ndegeocello, and several well-known European pop and jazz stars... er... moons. Singer Marie Daulne also has one of those amazingly soothing, sultry voices (think Norah Jones) that I could easily listen to for days. But, while I found the "Follow your dreams!" lyrics vaguely goofy at first, I found them cheesy (bordering on insufferable) after a couple of listens.

It might just be because I hate being disappointed. Zap Mama started off as a tremendously cutting-edge quartet of women, all of whom boasted blended African and European ancestry and who subsequently blended African and European musical styles into something that was completely new and truly amazing. That quartet, though, has dwindled down to Marie Daulne, and she's put out an album that in an attempt to be "personal" and "intimate", comes off as, unfortunately, self-indulgent. It's not bad, it's just not as good as it could (and should) be.

Read my review of Supermoon, and if you've heard the album, leave a blog comment and tell us what you thought!