ABBC - Tête à Tête
(Wabana)
Imagine for a moment that the Louisiana Purchase fell through, and
France retained control of much of the Western United States for
another 50 or 100 years. All those gruff and scruffy outlaws
meandering the harsh, barren plains would have had their saddlebags
full of brie and beaujolais with their felt berets providing
completely inadequate protection from the desert sun. Luckily,
Napoleon sold Jefferson that land, and the French cowboy is an
object of pure fantasy.
ABBC is a collaboration between New Mexico instrument wranglers
Calexico and their permanent houseguests, the Amor Belhom Duo of
Paris. The music of the group is seemingly intended to be a
collision of the two cultures, French cabaret pop fused with
Western guitar soundscapes, and both styles are full represented.
However, there is little actual fusing of the two styles as most
songs seem to be standard material for one of the two duos, only
arranged for four instruments instead of two. For instance,
the cabaret pop of "Elevator Baby" and "Je Voudrais me Rappeller"
benefits little from the presence of Calexico. Calexico provides
less lead songwriting, but in the tracks they do, the presence
of Amor and Belhom is similarly unfelt. For example, the country
ballad "Gilbert" is stylistically and thematically very similar
to "Service and Repair" from Calexico's Hot Rail.
The two or three songs that seem more like true collaborations
are fairly bland soundtrack fodder. "The Wrestler's Masque"
and "Le Savon se Dissout dans la Rigole" are lengthy quiet
rustlings. The music is purely incidental.
While saying the album fails to meet its perceived goal seems
highly negative, Tête à Tête (Head-to-Head for
those non-francophiles) is still good music, the highlights
just seem to be not much different from the work of the duos
separately. Both "Mobile Home" and "Gilbert" would be
very good songs for the duos, so naturally they are good
songs for the quartet. The album just seems to be less than
it could have been, like the Frenchman was eager to hear the
cowboy's stories, but he didn't want to get anywhere near his
horse.
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