Speaking with JazzTimes two years ago, vocalist Cyrille Aimée explained why, viewing music as an essentially positive force, she purposefully focused on upbeat material. No sad songs, she insisted. That rule has at last been bent, if only slightly. Otherwise Let’s Get Lost checks all the requisite Aimée boxes: her love of guitar; her French and Dominican heritages; and her passion for the Gypsy influences that ignited her career.
The album is, she says, intended to trace the arc of a relationship. Along for the sometimes romantically bumpy ride are longstanding members of her coterie: guitarists Adrien Moignard and Michael Valeanu, plus bassist Sam Anning and drummer Rajiv Jayaweera. Charming as ever, Aimée opens with a sunny reading of Stephen Sondheim’s “Live Alone and Like It.” Loneliness creeps in with a hazy “There’s a Lull in My Life,” but sensual pleasure is soon at hand with Dominican poet Juan Luis Guerra’s “Estrellitas y Duendes,” a shimmering “Lazy Afternoon” and the cuddly Chet Baker-associated title tune.
Aimée includes two French tracks, Edith Piaf’s tender “T’es Beau tu Sais” and the wistful “Samois à Moi,” a Gypsy-fired reminiscence of her birthplace, cowritten with Brazilian guitarist Diego Figueiredo. And she adds three more originals: the wordless “Laverne Walk,” a swinging pas de deux with Anning; the sweet “Nine More Minutes,” with lovers awaiting an early morning train; and the mellifluous “Each Day,” an ode to soulmate contentment sung with her onetime American bandmate (turned European pop star) Matt Simons.
Cyrille Aimee: Let’s Get Lost
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