AO
P.O. Box 16572, St. Lous, MO 63105
www.aomusic.com
nahoo@aomusic.com
jojo@aomusic.com
The Ragged Blade webmaster questions the wisdom of calling oneself either Nahoo or Jojo after one reaches a certain age, and one does have to wonder. This St. Louis duo has produced album that goes all over the board celebration various wold cultures, and it works! It passes the “Jerry test” of a good album, which is very simply: do I listen to it a lot?
To me what stands out on this album are the arrangements – just the overall background sound and how it’s all put together. The combo of native instruments with technology, while far from a new idea, works wonders here because it’s all integrated together, providing a “world” sound, more or less, without making a big stink about it. They don’t try for any part of the world in particular, but rather throw it all together for the purpose making the music how they want to. Even the kid talking Esperanto fits in pretty well, and I’m not one for throwing talking children onto an album, especially during dinner. Most of the melodies are pretty catchy, though some of the lyrics have a bit too much of a “gee whiz, what a wonderful multicultural world we live in ” I know that’s the point of this, but subtlety works better.
The singing itself is a bit raspy at time – it could be a bit stronger, but I like the guy’s voice, now that I've heard it a bit, he sings with confidence at least, just a bit airy at times.
I kind of like mishmash albums like this; I think the best tracks are “America, “Chameleon Makebelieve,” “Mother,” and the “AO Reprise” at the end, with some deep reaching harmonies and nice strumming guitar work.
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