Customer Reviews

Lost in the 80s

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

These guys acoustically revisit standards from the 80ies in a jazz "manouche" à la "Jango Reinhard", from who they take their name... as Jango had lost fingers but however became the legend we know.
This CD is well recorded, and there are plenty of good moments, as they go from a song to another... We know them all, and I like the way they revisit these all.
I bought the CD after hearing them at french Radio FIP - instantly. And I did not regret that purchase... Go ahead ! C'est super, allez-y !

Really fun acoustic versions of 80's hits... twangy guitars that sound straight out of the The Triplets of Belleville. Might sound like an odd fusion, but it works quite well. A definitely superior rendering of Paula Abdul's "Straight Up," a song I always despised. In fact, these guys took a list of some of my *least* favorite songs from the 80's and worked their magic on them; suddenly I not only like them, they bear repeat listening!

Who knew some of those old '80's dance songs were actually pretty good songs? Or maybe now that you know the words, good for a laugh? In any case, this band from Quebec, Canada have taken a classic jazz style and applied it to some "classics". I first learned of them on 'Fresh Air' on NPR in a review of the Montreal Jazz Festival. If you can find a copy, check it out. As one friend says very enjoyable but maybe not something I would listen to every day.

This is a great CD, it contains a lot of good remixes from the 80's, only guitars and voices. Nothing cheesy, everything just sounds sooo refreshing and catchy!

Guitars and voices are all the band uses, some songs are so different from the originals the lyrics is all you might recognize at first, but it will grow on you I promise :)

Excellent travail les gars, vive la musique du Quebec!

OMG! I heard 'Straight Up' in a shop in Montreal and knew I had to have it. The rest of the CD does not disappoint (well maybe the Celine Dion song was not necessary). Highly recommended.

The chances that you have heard of French band The Lost Fingers are very slim unless you're 1) French or most likely 2) Live/in or have visited the Canadian province of Quebec. The band is fairly unknown outside of the province but interest in the band continues to grow, in fact I'm surprised Amazon is even selling their albums but I'm supporting it! The Lost Fingers are a brilliant French trio composed of Alex Morrissette, Christian Roberge, and Byron Mikaloff who play gypsy Jazz versions of 1980's pop classics that they grew up with. The album's title "Lost In The 80's" should give you more of a clue. To me The Lost Fingers are a breath of fresh air when compared to the majority of today's music. I love the band's style, their Gypsy Jazz sound a.k.a "Jazz Manouche" a la Django Reinhadrt is a peaceful and pleasant one. I'm also a fan of 80's music so I suppose those covers of 1980's songs contribute to my overall appreciation of this fantastic album. TLF sound right out of "Les Triplettes de Belleville" which is kinda cool if you ask me, their brand of music is quite welcomed these days.

The Lost Fingers have covered successful 80's artists and songs in their own, fantastic way. I won't go through all the songs but I'll say that their version of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" is amazing, I'm sure the King of Pop would have enjoyed hearing this as an homage. To me the best song on "Lost in the 80's" is the band's cover of "Touch Me" by Samantha Fox, its great go listen to it. "Pump Up The Jam" is an excellent take on the original and "Fresh" is simply great. "You Give Love A Bad Name", "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Tainted Love" are also favorites. I don't think The Lost Fingers is a band that everyone can enjoy, some people won't like their particular Jazz style and let's face it you can't please everybody when it comes to music. To me, this is refreshing and musically exciting but to someone else it may be horrible.

I'm usually not a big fan of cover albums even though some bands have done famously so before like Guns N'Roses and Metallica with "The Spagetthi Incident?" and "Garage Days/ Inc". However, The Lost Fingers have a great musical style and they keep the fun pop side of the songs but mix them with their own style so what you get is something different and unique. In my opinion cover albums can work and there are some pretty good covers-only albums I'm not going to deny that they owe quite a lot to Django (their name is a direct nod to him, the accident in which he lost two fingers) because they do, but hearing this style of music done by people much younger and TODAY makes it a little different.

Judge for yourself, hear the samples here on Amazon.com and maybe check out some live performances on Youtube, these guys are great musicians and they can play the hell out of these songs! This combination of Jazz a la Manouche with 1980s pop hits works very well in my book. Take notice that since the album's original release The Lost Fingers have released two more albums, "Randez-Vous Rose" (2009) and more recently "Gypsy Kameleon" (2010). "Randez-Vous" has the band pursuing the same musical direction but this time with French hits; this one is less interesting to me, however it is certainly not bad as there are some pretty good songs there as well. On the other hand their most recent album "Gypsy Kameleon" has the band returning to English 80's covers and most of them are just as good as what's on "Lost In The 80's". 4.5/5.

This album is made so well. I really enjoy the rhythms and guitars being played, as well as the singer's voice.
I like the music from the 80's but this take on the music is so much nicer. I can barely stand it when a great song is remade by another singer and it sounds the same, or worse. These guys keep it similar so we can recognize the song but their style is so different. And awesome!

The Lost Fingers deliver very fun gypsy swing cover versions of some of the 80s most popular songs. All of them are amazingly well-done and the covers are all close enough to the originals that you'll be able to sing along the very first time around.

I love this CD! These guys are great! This is so different from anything that I have listened to. It is very Jazzy, or bluesy. They can really play. A lot of fun and worth the price!

SHAME ON ANYONE CONNECTED WITH THIS EFFORT! I couldn't listen to more than the first two tracks. Django's probably rolling in his grave over this one.