Additional personnel includes: Pace Won, Slick Rick, Kurt Wagner, Miriam Stockley, Michael Dove (vocals); Samantha Rowe (cello); Ruth Hammond (flute, saxophone); Debbie Cole (flute); Dan Goldman (keyboards); Richard Harrison, Pino Palladino, Steve Gordon (bass); Miles Bould (percussion).
Fragments of Freedom was released in 2000 and not received very well. If critics and fans would have been able to gaze into a crystal ball a couple of years in the future, they would have understood. With the benefit of hindsight, consider Fragments the prototypically disjointed transitional record that saw Morcheeba shifting focus from trip-hop to a more well-rounded mix, as Charango completes the journey that may have been bumpy, but with a sweet destination. Once again, guests are brought in to augment the band's sound; Lambchop's Kurt Wagner returns to help the electronica act with meditative lead vocals that fit into the film noir soundscape that is "What New York Couples Fight About," and Pace Won adds his rhymes to two tunes -- the title track, which harks back to the trip-hopping salad days of the group and sees the rapper taking the lead, and "Get Along," where he makes a more subtle contribution on a dreamy cut that sounds like something from the '70s if they had more modern equipment back then. However, the best is "Women Lose Weight," which sees Slick Rick sound completely old-school with Morcheeba's pop-soul groove letting his typically clever rhymes and dark comedy dominate the song. Though the appearances of outside musicians is a positive move overall, the remainder of the disc as done by the three members of the group stands up on its own; Skye Edwards' vocals are sultry as she makes all diva-like on lead track "Slow Down," the string-drenched melancholic "Otherwise," and the lazy, tropical "Sao Paulo," and overall her performance makes Charango the band's best record in some time, and for anyone not a purist, it's possibly Morcheeba's best ever. ~ Brian O'Neill
Special Guest;Slick Rick,Pace Won,Kurt Wagner From Lambchop
Morcheeba: Paul Godfrey (vocals, beats, scratches); Ross Godfrey (guitar, Charango, keyboards, background vocals); Skye (vocals).
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.Rolling Stone (9/19/02, p.98) - 3 stars out of 5 - "Lush, vaguely exotic strings, tasteful electronic beats and a female singer who's so languid she's almost not there....Morcheeba make a lovely sound..." Mojo (Publisher) (8/02, p.104) - "...Soulful in a Dolce & Gabbana kind of way..." Uncut (8/02, p.110) - 4 out of 5 - "...The entire album is a beauty...The most adventurous album of their career..."
Music for the soul I heard the song SLOW DOWN on a satellite radio station and fell in love with Morcheeba.
"When you need some time, to fall back in line, just Slow Down" was the line that hooked me.
If you love music that touches your soul, add Morcheeba's CHARANGO to your collection. Submitted by Michael Campbell (Milwaukee, WI, USA) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Smooth Tunes Here's another great album from Morcheeba. They follow their formula - and it's a formula that works. These are great, soulful chill-out tunes. Skye's voice is smooth and sexy and the music goes from bouncy to really mellow. A great album! Submitted by a reviewer (Milford, MA) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Excellent album, more than I expected I fell in love with Morcheeba when I heard "Otherwise" on the radio, so I downloaded it, thinking more music like that would be kind of boring. The next week I heard "Women Lose Weight" and I just absolutely adore that song. It has cool lyrics and excellent vocal work by Morcheeba and Slick Rick.
I listened to the album on the sampler here on CD Universe, and it seems they chose the worst parts of each songs to upload...I thought "well it's not very good, but I will buy it anyway".
Do you believe that I bought this album THIS afternoon, almost five years since its original release?? Well, I did it and heard patiently each song..."Slow Down" was excellent...great way to start the album, and keep listening to the music, songs like "Charango" and "Get Along" really kept my attention, and when I hear dthe last song, "The Great London...", which is absolutely instrumental, I ended loving this album, the first time I ever heard it complete. It was pretty cheap, and I don't regret at all that I bought it! Before this album the only Morcheeba songs I knew were "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" and "Be Yourself", but even though neither of those songs are on this record, it's an excellent work. I also read that Skye left the band after this album, that's too bad, but she left us with an extraordinary, relaxing and moving music, all collected on this album.
Great purchase, don't be fooled by the sampler, the complete album is way better than that. Submitted by Carlos (Chile) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Absolutely amazing! I give it all 5 stars! The Godfrey brothers know what they're doing. Skye Edwards is breathtaking. The melodies and beats are 'on point'... perfectly blended. A 'must have' album.
-C. Mackey Submitted by cm19810408 (Oberkail, Germany) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Smooth Tunes
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