He still makes good music, and fresh tracks, but that magical stuff we have used to expect from him. He is a king on stage, and a crowd favorite whose music and only his music is what we are after...not his rumors, not his outfits, not his personal drama.
He had many great songs since the release of this one song, but has any of them lasted as long? I do not think so. Has any been generated so much buzz around the world? I do not think so. No doubt Amr choses the right songs and works hard not to repeat himself, but we all cannot be great all the time.
Wala Ala Balo - Amr Diab ولا على باله - عمرو دياب
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I have to disagree with the statement that Amr is choosing good songs and trying not to repeat himself. His last few albums have been anchored by unremarkable club tracks and he is courting an audience young enough to be his kids. He coasts on the reputation of once being the biggest singer in Egypt, but he's not challenging it or trying to grow beyond it. He's just chasing what he thinks people half his age want to hear, and it reeks of a panicking desire to stay relevant.
ReplyDeleteHe's not asking for my opinion, but what I'd tell him to do is to make an album of freshened up standards, not revered Oum Kalthoum classics, but in the vein that Western singers do when they start hitting "the Great American Songbook." There are plenty of wonderful songs waiting to be plundered from mid-Century movie soundtracks that everybody knows and loves. Amr could retread some of them with modern-but-still-traditional arrangements, and he's got the age and respectability to make it sound cool that he's recording them. People make such a big deal when up-and-comers record older music to demonstrate their talent. Why not flip that on its head? He'd be reminding everybody that he deserves to go down in history as a legendary Egyptian talent and it would refocus the public's attention on him for something other than looking like (for lack of a better expression) mutton dressing as lamb.