Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good for ANY night on earth, February 25, 2001
Some long-time Cabrel fans feel like he's sold out, and they usually point to this album in particular; without the major social- and poltical-issue efforts of earlier albums, "Samedi soir sur la terre" marks a continuation of the artistic journey Cabrel seems to have started with "Sarbacane," a movement inwards. Almost as if deciding that you can't sort the world out until you sort yourself out, "Samedi soir" avoids heavier political themes in favor of moments of introspection, occasional whimsy, and compassionate observation.It's easy to call something a sell-out when it's this easy to listen to, when it's just this good. Me, I like Cabrel's profiling of social injustices on earlier albums--songs about immigrants struggling for acceptance and comfort, or about wounded and increasingly uncertain corners of former certainty in French culture. But I think it's just as important for an artist with that kind of gift for trenchant insight to set his sights on the bricks that make up society and political formations: individual human lives and how they come into contact with other individual human lives. In this way, I think, Cabrel's songs on "Samedi soir"--about precarious relationships, about love for one's children, and about the way the big bad world seems to play with us--are every bit as vital as songs that seem to boast a more immediate political agenda. Buy this album; in addition to the intimacy of the lyrics and the accessibility of the music and the Gypsy King cameo and the beautifully clean production (as if all of that weren't reason enough), it's just plain pretty.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rock Solid French Artist With Beautiful Music, March 7, 2000
I think I first heard "Je T'Aimais, Je T'Aime, Je T'Aimerai" at my French Teacher's wedding... But I'm not sure. I remember running across this song on Napster one day, while searching for something else. I loved it, and borrowed the CD for the weekend. Francis Cabrel sings songs that are both beautiful and well written. (It makes me wonder what else us stereotypical non-importing Americans miss.) It was so good that I decided to buy the CD, even thought I could have downloaded most of it. I'm a beginning French student, and it's amazing how much I can pick up. I'll just get parts of songs stuck in my head, go around singing them all day, then smack myself in the forehead when I realize what I've been singing. It just clicks, which is a great feeling. The lyrics are easily understandable, he doesn't mumble or slur. This CD should be bought by anybody who likes artists similar in sound to Eric Clapton, or anybody interested in French.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Escaping from French Neil Diamond Syndrome, June 13, 2004
Cabrel's earlier albums carry a definite Neil Diamond-esque feel to them. This album manages to cast this aside (as much as is possible) and acheives a very mature yet fresh and energetic feel to it. Nearly completely acoustic, it has a great folksy feel. I love all but maybe one or two songs on this album (and even those "disliked" songs would make me pause on the radio dial if I heard them). Cabrel makes perfect use of the 4 minute mileu to make his points or tell his stories, which generally manage to be both specific and generally applicable stories, hence making them resonate beyond the bounds of the words themselves. Lastly, Cabrel is great for learners of French as he sings clearly and is relatively easy to understand, yet sounds as French as French can be.
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~ Francis Cabrel
~ Francis Cabrel
~ Francis Cabrel
~ Francis Cabrel
~ Jean-Jacques Goldman
by Francis Cabrel 
