Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Rubberlips]

I've just found this on the Guardian Newspaper website. Does anyone think it's a fair review? Anyone found any other reviews?

Though he scored a worldwide hit with 1977's Oxygene, the days when Jean Michel Jarre was mentioned alongside 1970s electronic pioneers have gone. The Frenchman is more often remembered for preposterous live spectaculars ranging from using cities as a "stage" to recording in space. As Jarre's audio-visual productions have grown along with his ego, his musical output has dwindled in quality and quantity, but even so, Téo & Téa represents a spectacular nadir. Mostly rooted in poor 1980s Europop or anonymous soundtrack music, only the title track - with its one-note solos reminiscent of Faithless circa 1995 - is moderately progressive. At 58, the composer can be forgiven for thinking a computerised voice is still where it's at, but not for infantile melodies that mostly sound like a music-shop demonstration room in 1979. New wife Anne Parillaud supplies orgasmic cries to the cheesy Beautiful Agony with an intensity that suggests Jarre still has a talent for something, but creatively he has surely withered.

[Nico_Noyau]

That's because they didn't listen to it carefully, doh

[Kanta]

Manchester (UK) Evening News - Téo & Téa Review

THE Oxygene king returns with this new slice of electronica. If you have heard the title track - a space age love story- you know what to expect.
Much knob twiddling and Stephen Hawking style voices signals a chance for Jarre to attract a younger audience to his work. But the problem is that his dance sound is so dated - that unless the kids are fans of retro dance, circa Ibiza 1994 - they will be unplugging their ipods.
Trying to mix the sounds of Air, Mike Oldfield and trance is a recipe for disaster really. On the track 'Beautiful Agony' one of Jarre's female characters is having fun in the bedroom.

Unfortunately, the effect is like being invited to a party where the DJ thinks he knows what's good for you. Musically the album is slick and if you like the man's work, you won't feel too duped.
But it is hard to know who the target audience is as it clearly has been made so Jean Michel can get down with the kids.

Hats off to the man for trying but these 'Confessions On A Dancefloor' have been heard many times before.

[Nico_Noyau]

Game Over, tu du du du duuuuuuuu

[jarrekid]

I do agree that Teo & Tea is something that's been done many times over, but I think this may be another direction for JMJ, and that another album in a similar style may go somewhere new.

[Rubberlips]

From The Daily Telegraph:

Jean Michel Jarre
Teo and Tea
Atlantic, £14.99

With his 1976 album Oxygene Jean Michel Jarre was the first person to make multi-millions through electronic music. Now, however, he suffers a similar problem to his hipper German rivals, Kraftwerk, namely that both have been left standing by their musical descendants.

Teo and Tea, a loose concept album about a sci-fi love affair, makes the right noises - orchestral chill-out, a twitchy air guitar-goes-electro thing, a pumping trance cut.

Eventually, though, even the faintly desperate porno groaning on Beautiful Agony cannot save the album from sounding like 1990s club music that lacks the personality of Jarre's early works. Thomas H Green

[Rubberlips]

And another, this time the Belfast Telegraph:

Jean Michel Jarre
Teo and Tea (Aero)
Friday, April 20, 2007

By Nigel Gould

He's the musical equivalent of Inspector Gadget ? Give Jean Michel Jarre a synthesizer and he'll record an epic.

If you were into rock music in the 1970s and 1980s, Jarre was something of an embarrassment ? but it is hard to argue with his composing talents which have led to the shifting of 60 million records across the globe. This new album may not be on a money-making par with Oxygene - the 1970s record-breaker - but it is worth a listen.


Dance is the dominant genre on show ? similar to the work he was doing in the 1990s. Best are Fresh New and the title track ? a three-minute pop tune!

[Jarp2600]

And another, this time the Belfast Telegraph:

Jean Michel Jarre
Teo and Tea (Aero)
Friday, April 20, 2007

By Nigel Gould

He's the musical equivalent of Inspector Gadget ? Give Jean Michel Jarre a synthesizer and he'll record an epic.

If you were into rock music in the 1970s and 1980s, Jarre was something of an embarrassment ? but it is hard to argue with his composing talents which have led to the shifting of 60 million records across the globe. This new album may not be on a money-making par with Oxygene - the 1970s record-breaker - but it is worth a listen.


Dance is the dominant genre on show ? similar to the work he was doing in the 1990s. Best are Fresh New and the title track ? a three-minute pop tune!

That's a better one!

[Jakob BC]

I have ignored most reviews, I don't expect any of them to incude any useable information. Maybe they are there, I just don't pay attention. Thanks anyway for posting these.

[Velodynamic]

Manchester (UK) Evening News - Téo & Téa Review

Trying to mix the sounds of Air, Mike Oldfield and trance...

[Jakob BC]

And what conclution can one draw from that?

Air is cool because one half of The Moog Cookbook has been keyboardplayer for them, Mike Oldfield makes good music and Trance is a ncie genre (IMO), so a mixture doesn't neccesarily result in anything shitty.

[GeeJee]

Manchester (UK) Evening News - Téo & Téa Review

Trying to mix the sounds of Air, Mike Oldfield and trance...

Geez - he'd better not review any music ever again.
I don't really care about those reviews, sometimes they are interesting to read, providing you with new points of view and all that, but this is just ridicilous.

[E-vert]

Manchester (UK) Evening News - Téo & Téa Review

Trying to mix the sounds of Air, Mike Oldfield and trance...

Geez - he'd better not review any music ever again.
I don't really care about those reviews, sometimes they are interesting to read, providing you with new points of view and all that, but this is just ridicilous.

Indeed. Air sounds very different than Teo and Tea.

[Nico_Noyau]

Yes, for having listened to it yesterday, I can say it is VERY different, T&T is much better (Air is not that good, I don't like it at all )

[GeeJee]

Oh, I like AIR. But it's just a different piece of cake. It's not like JMJ at all. Just a very different type of music.