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If you liked Cyrille Aimée’s Mack Avenue debut It’s A Good Day, you’ll love the lively vocalist’s follow-up effort, Let’s Get Lost, released earlier this month. Working with two guitarists—Adrien Moignard and Michael Valeanu, bassist Sam Anning, and drummer Rajiv Jayaweera—she runs through a 13-tune set that both highlights her electric vocal brilliance and shows that, no one trick pony, she has a dreamier side as well.
In addition to what might well be her signature sprightly sound in tunes like the venerable “Three Little Words” and the album’s title song, the jumping “Let’s Get Lost” provides an opportunity for a bit of scat. It’s an opportunity that arises again in “Laverne Walk,” a duet with bassist Anning. On the other hand, there are reflective moments like a plaintive version of “That Old Feeling” and a childlike “Nine More Minutes,” complete with guitar reflections on “Three Blind Mice” that gives over to a more adult theme.
She opens with Stephen Sondheim’s “Live Alone and Like It,” a tune which, according to her bio, she performed in an Encores Special Presentation at NYC’s City Center in November 2013 at the behest of the composer. The album includes nods to her roots with “Estrellitas y Duendes,” a tribute to the Dominican Republic, her mother’s homeland, and her own French heritage with Edith Piaf’s “T’es Beau tu Sais.”
“Samois à Moi,” written with Diego Figueiredo, is a tribute to the town in which she herself grew up. Vocalist Matt Simons joins her for a lively “Each Day,” the album’s penultimate song, followed by a bonus track, “Words.” “There’s a Lull in My Life” and “Lazy Afternoon” round out the album.
In an interview with AXS, Aimée talks about the album’s concept as a journey through a relationship: “When being on the road with the same band for so long, you tend to get to know each other really well musically, but also personally, and Let’s Get Lost reflects our relationship as a band, having gone through good and hard times.” While this refers to her journey with the ensemble, given the nature of some of the songs chosen, the relationship may well be something much more personal. Whatever the concept, Let’s Get Lost is an album to be enjoyed and savored.
