"15 Again" is French House/Electro group Cassius third album. For those of you that also bought their first two, the music is simular but more mainstream with more guest artists and more diversity among the songs, they also got alot of lyrics this time. It was released in Europe in September 2006 but postponed a month in US. Maybe this sudden change of pace was made to sell better in US or to not make their music sound dated, hence even Pharell appears on one song!. We've seen many others doing the same, but when a dance group becomes too mainsteam and adds both pop, rock, jazz and a reggae singer it can often become too much. I don't mind the lyrics, but I prefer when the music is in the spotlight and there are fewer lyrics in this genre.
First song works fantastic, it's called "Toop Toop" it feautures vocals but they doesn't bother the song, it also got catchy percussion that is followed through-out the whole song and guitar riffs. Already a club hit in Europe. "This Song" is midtempo that feautures an annoying reggae singer, although it got a nice electro synth pop sounds, it hardly feels like a Cassius song. The title track "15 Again" feauture a female singer an is a passable pop/dance song. "All I Want" follows the sam path, but is also passable. On "Eye Water" Pharell feauture, the song is a pop/rock song and I guess they recorded it to get more popular appeal. It isn't bad, but sounds odd on a Cassius album. "See Me Now" maybe got the catchiest sound after "Toop" but once again the annoying reggae singer appears again. "A Mile From Here" is really strange, it's some kind of jazz influenced dance song. But eventually a fantastic song comes with "Jack Rock" that is classic instrumental house, it seems like Cassius didn't forget their roots afterall but they put this song discretely outside of the spotlight. "Cactus" is pure electro signed Etienne De Crezy. It's 8 minutes and a Great number also. "La Notte" which means the Night in Italian is a jazzy chillout song, also without lyrics. More electro comes on "Cria Cuervos", Another brilliant instrumental.
Overall, While it got it's moments it feels like too much of a mish mash at times. It's difficult to see a great house band going mainstream but still not giving up their roots. On this album we'll find an hell lot of diffrent genre's squezed into an album with 12 songs and most of them feel like they should have been part of diffrent projects. I don't mind them becoming a little more pop oriented, but at the same time they have to decide what kind of music they want to do. It's defenitely an album you could listen too and enjoy, but it's far too diverse to work as a concept. Mixed bag.
The French Evolution
Cassius Again