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naRa certainly looks serene on the cover of the CD but the first we find out about her is that she’s based in Geneva and Beirut and this duality is reflected in her music as she develops her own take on Middle eastern pop-house-disco.

Now if I read that, I’d be thinking Cascada on a good day at best (which doesn’t sound that good to me) but I must give naRa due respect on this one as after the tentative club boogie start of ‘I Am’, ‘Soul Food’ and the title track have got some je ne sais dance floors croix from Dubai to Paris to Dakar.

Unfortunately, this good start turns as ‘Love At First Sight’ slips into a poor mans Stevie Wonder of the 70s meets Kenny G with a rather odd jazzy skat. And then ‘Rhythm’ is a Euro-clubber with dodgy guitar solo trying to cross-over to Chris Rea and the like (Why?) That said, in truth it’s a bit of a grower as Carlos Santana meets Arabic pop dance floor. If I’m going to Europe this summer, this would be what I’d be more than happy to hear on the Eurocamp club nights.

But then it turns again as the lyrics of ‘Tonight’ goes “Tonight is the night, cum on people do it right” and similar for just over three minutes - a one extreme this could be a big smash or at the other, pants (and I don’t mean James).

‘Virtual Love’ shows some respect to electro-reggae but the relative ballad of ‘Stay’ is euro-Arab-pop that works with the string arrangements.

Much better is the Rai-rap Italo-disco hot club of Paris tango of ‘Oriental Funk’. Why isn’t this the single? By far the best track on the album that annoyingly fades out early whilst the single of ‘Serenity’ features an AB Brothers Club mix, a radio edit of ‘I Am’ and a club mix of ‘Rhythm’.

naRa is currently working with Ragheb Alameh but I’ll be pressing connections to sort themselves out on a launch of ‘Oriental Funk’ extended Disco 45. We’ve not heard the the last of naRa.

And to finish on the duality of where we started on this one, it’s a little confusing that an album entitled Serenity rarely (if at all) has any moments of serenity at all except for the dreadful closing track, ‘Patience’.

For me this is a one track album (‘Oriental Funk’) but I won’t be crossing naRa off my Christmas card list just yet as there’s loads of X-Factor style potential here.
Hectic Mix nominations: ‘I Am’, ‘Oriental Funk’, ‘Soul Food’, ‘Serenity’

Reviewed: naRa - Serenity (New Sound Revolution) Cat. No. 002-062009-0002 Release date: 30th June 2009
1. I Am (5:24)
2. Soul Food (4:01)
3. Serenity (3:53)
4. Love At First Sight (3:42)
5. Rhythm (4:28)
6. Tonight (3:13)
7. Oriental Funk (3:41)
8. Virtual Love (2:54)
9. Stay (3:57)
10. Patience (3:34)

Links:
www.myspace.com/narafanclub
www.narafanclub.com