The new Internet label Petite&Jolie brought together cuteness and RPM in their first ‘various artist’ compilation, Pantoufla Tagada. The album, released in November of 2007, is available on their website as a free download. Artists from Puerto Rico, Spain, Mexico, France, and other cute places offer their talents to create a different kind of World Music.
It’s hard to explain the appeal of the album. Pantoufla Tagada is full of cute sounds combined with some darkness that comes through here and there. It’s certainly avant-garde and weird, which can be a mixed blessing. My personal favorite is the song “Alicia” by the band Balún, a cross between Julieta Venegas, cuteness, and toy instruments (which are coincidentally also cute). There are plenty of other songs ( including those without lyrics) that will surprise you. The band el zoologico includes a tune called “Penguin and Sea Lion” which transports even the most relentless video game hater into a cute Katamari Damacy. But it doesn’t stop there, the French band Nej brings us dark cuteness with “Tell You,” a track that’ll remind you of Bjork. It’s cute, it’s weird, and it’s free, why the hell wouldn’t you want this album?
Four out of five world globes.
PS: The word cute (or cuteness) appears more than 7 times in this review… seriously it’s cute, there’s no other word for it.