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NASSAU 80/82 THE GRIGRI YEARS ... Digipack deluxe reissue of 1980 Lizzy's second album included 5 bonus tracks : Here is what CHRIS BURKHAM of UK Sounds said in September 1981 : Sex with style*** Every now and then the heart beats faster. The band has been changed, the recording studio has been changed. And the music has changed its emphasis, although the delivery stays the same. It is a ragged, shattered, subtlety abrasive funk, with that squawky, squeaky but strangely smooth French accent of Lizzy Mercier Descloux. A voice that croons with urgency, a voice that seduces with sensuality, a voice that implies restlessness, a voice that gets noticed. Her first release, ? Press Color ?, on the (now) fabulously hip Ze Records, had a sound that was richer and fuller. A sound typified by her (semi- legendary) cover of ? Mission Impossible ? - search it out and ignite ! It was an invitation to the new dance. At the time, though, few replied to the beguilingly rhythmic dance statement. ? Mambo Nassau ? retains the colour of ? Color ?. It still has the same frenetic vibrancy but it is a sound that has been stripped down to the bare essentials.<++CUT++> This initial shock of a naked ? Color ? is soon superceded by the realisation of its dancefloor potential, and the acknowledgement of how many varying musical styles have been successfully incorporated into the Ip. The lack of dance-flaws on "Mambo Nassau" is stressed track after track after delicious track. It is a tumbling dance. A jittery-bug-eyed rush of interchanging rhythms and the beat with gyrations rather than toe- taps, the music of a beautiful, brash spinning top. Dizzy Lizzy, my head is . . . Well, hasn't Lizzy been busy since 1979. Only this one Ip since ? Color ?, but an Ip that stuns with its ( seemingly) simple assimilation of styles and style. Each separate slice of this delight is laced with something precious, something all of its own. From the sleazy, jazz-air of ? It's You Sort of ? to the ethnic feeling that has been ensnared on ? Lady 0 K'Pele ? , the whole Ip communicates feeling. The funk pushes it, the melody slyly insinuates it and the lyrics passionately whisper and shout about it. A feeling instead of a thought, strokes and touches instead of words and sentences. The feeling is that of being: lost, hopeful, aching, loving and sexy. Lizzy Mercier Descloux is a cunning naif, an aware waif, an experienced virgin, a tipsy teetotaller and a star in the shoddy, shady niche of obscunsism.. These songs, are the current number ones in Heaven (not the one beneath the Arches, but the one above the clouds ). Lizzy Mercier Descloux deserves the crown that Kim Wilde currently holds. ? Mambo Nassau ? is an album to be cherished, to be over played, lelt alone and then returned to. It is the tastiest sweet in the shop. It embodies the heavy thudding of a heart in love. Between Now and Next enjoy the charms of Blue Rhondo, The Jazateers (wait and see)l, ABC ...: but always remember the final line in ? Five Troubles Mambo ?: ? This is for real my baby jive five ?. CHRIS BURKHAM • Sounds September 1981 |
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