Music Review: Corneille, The Birth Of Cornelius
“Music has been the place where I could go to hide and forget about the world. I couldn’t make sense of a majority of the things that happened to me, so I used music as a shield. But over time, music has become a vehicle to channel out everything that I’ve been keeping from myself for all these years. And the new album is definitely the most honest, real assessment of everything that’s happened in my life, because I’m not trying to hide as much.” -Corneille
When I was first contacted by Team Mom about reviewing new music, I was almost giddy with excitement. I love discovering good new music and new artists. This is my first, of what I hope to be many, such reviews.
The release of The Birth of Cornelius doesn’t just mark the arrival of a major new artist on Motown Records. The album chronicles the latest chapter for a musician who has already had a remarkable career—and an extraordinary life. Though virtually unknown to an American audience, Corneille sells out arenas in other parts of the world. His albums have reached monumental, Diamond-selling status in France. And those accomplishments follow struggles and challenges in his personal history that are truly beyond comprehension.
At first, I didn’t care for this CD. In fact, I thought it was downright boring. I enjoy all different genres of music, so that isn’t a factor here. Upon listening to it many more times, I was able to find some good things to say. I really wanted to like this CD for two reasons. The first reason was that this was my first review, and although it was made very clear to me that Team Mom wants honest reviews and I’m not being compensated in any way, it just made me feel bad to write an unfavorable review my first time around. The second reason was that I absolutely love Corneille’s quote above. You know how much I adore quotes. Plus, I feel exactly the same way.
Part of my initial distaste for the CD was due to the fact that almost every song is about lost love, unrequited love and/or blatant co-dependency. Ick. Yes, ”ick” is a technical music-industry insider term that you may not be familiar with.
I’ll start with the bad news….
Track #5 – Murder. The lyrics are bizarre, and frankly, creepy. For example: “I’m out of options baby / And tricks to make you stay / This is not a threat / But if you walk out that door / It’ll be like / Simply killing me, don’t you understand / It’ll be like murder”. Any sentence that begins with, “this is not a threat…”, is in fact, a threat. Tricks to make you stay? Ugh.
Track #10 – Sweet Dependency. In this song, he refers to being dependent on and addicted to his “girl” and invites her to join him in this dependency. Yikes.
Most of the lyrics are uninspired, clichéd and as I mentioned, creepy. Some of the music is reminiscent of a fairly decent wedding band. He’s lived through a lot of significant pain. You can read his entire bio HERE and more HERE. I’ll bet that he’s got a lot more in him than these sappy, pining lost-love songs.
Now, for the good news….
His overall sound can be described as, “chill”. He has a smooth and pleasant voice, although I would like to hear more of his range. On the rare occasion when he drops down into lower registers, his voice sounds like it might be even more interesting.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y9vLeYlbLc]
If you can ignore the fact that most of the lyrics leave something to be desired, several of the songs have an overall good sound. My favorites are Track 1 – Back To Life, Track 3 – Liberation, and Track 7 – Too Much Of Everything (pretty hot video too!).
On a scale of 1-10, I’d rate this CD a 6. He’s clearly talented, this is his first release in the U.S., and he’s got Universal Motown behind him. I’m looking forward to hearing more from him.
You can check out his website at www.corneillemusic.com. The CD is also available at www.amazon.com and on iTunes.
Thanks for stopping by!
Is it just too superficial to mention that his photo is OH SO attractive? I would be tempted to listen on that alone;) Congrats on the new gig!
http://www.igrewup.wordpress.com
I’m so jealous… what a sweet gig! I’m going to go check out the vid now, cause wowzer! He is a beautiful man:) But you’re right- I’m a lyric girl, and those lyrics certainly wouldn’t do it for me either. I hope you love the next one you get to review.
No, not superficial at all…he is one sexy looking man!