My notes for this track from Mabele’s Stop Arretez! album describe it as one of the best soukous tracks I’ve heard. Strong praise indeed, though subsequent listens have slightly talked the track down from the peaks scaled by the likes of Ngonda. Nevertheless, Evelyne does have a wonderful sense of completeness about it which I don’t often find in other soukous tracks. So many of them are all about the extended play out, which is fine given the ecstatic highs that the best of them reach. But Evelyne is that rarest of soukous creatures in that it leaves you straining to hear the words and soak up the sentiments. The mood appears to be lushly romantic with Mabele and his backing singers seeming to declare that Evelyne is the most beautiful woman in all of Burkina Faso. I say “appears to be romantic”, because my French isn’t good enough to be able to offer a full translation, so for all I know he could be leaving or killing her, despite some of the mon amours that pop up throughout the track.
However, the mood in this typically low budget video seems to be romantic and loving, despite the troubling moment where Mabele appears to be humping a boulder. It feels an appropriate tune for Valentine’s Day, which was when this edition of John Peel’s Music went out on BFBS. I may even try and adapt the tune and write suitable lyrics for my wife when this year’s Valentine’s Day rolls around. And even if I’m wrong, and the song is actually a break-up tune, the shift in the guitar playing over the last 40 seconds sounds like it was composed by Cupid himself.
Video courtesy of skycoolguy.
No comments:
Post a Comment