CD Review - Putumayo Presents Acoustic France

As anyone who reads this site regularly knows, I love France and all things French - the language, the food, the fashion, the attitude, etc. One of my life goals involves owning a fabulous penthouse on the Champs-Elysees, as well as a modest chateau somewhere in the country. Please note that my life goals also involve becoming a bazillionaire, preferably without having to work particularly hard at it.

Seriously, though, I'm not hard to win over when it comes to French music. I like pretty much all of it. I even have a soft spot for the borderline goofy house music that is synonymous with the discotheque scene. That said, I really liked the songs on Putumayo Presents Acoustic France, the latest offering from the world music powerhouse label. What I did not like, however, was the fact that the darn thing is only 36 minutes long. Yes, I do understand that a label like Putumayo, who conglomerates rather than produces the songs on each CD, has to pay royalties on each and every one, faces cost-inefficiency to pay for the rights to more than a dozen or so songs per CD. I also understand that longer songs do not necessarily mean better songs. That doesn't make me less convinced, though, that it's worth fifteen bucks for the CD. I'd rather just buy a full-length album from any given one of the artists featured (who include French first lady Carla Bruni) and get closer to an hour's worth of music. Yes, I'm a cheapskate (which will likely help me on my quest to bazillionairehood), but I think that we, as the music-buying public, have a right to a certain amount of bang for our buck.

If you are less stingy than I am, it is overall a great record. It moves nicely from folky ballad to uptempo love song, with a couple of cool Django-style swingy numbers thrown in for good measure. Pair it with the barely-longer Putumayo Presents Paris and a nice Languedoc vin de table and you might just make it through a traditional six-course meal. Maybe.

Album Cover (c) Putumayo Records, 2008