Buy J’ai ete Au Bal (I Went to the Dance), Vol. 2
Okay, so I’m actually kind of glad that I gave vol. 2 a chance because it was better than vol. 1. Now, Cajun music is still not going to be anything I just seek out because I really love listening to it. But there were tracks on this album that I genuinely enjoyed. Maybe this is because this CD included a few songs from Clifton Chenier, widely considered to be the king of Zydeco (he gets namechecked in Paul Simon’s Zydeco pastiche That Was Your Mother) and his tracks are pretty great, just basically hopped up party music with a prominent, but not at all annoying, accordion. Again, there’s enough here that is pretty awful that I’m not going to come anywhere near recommending this, but this is different from the first CD in that it kind of shows how Cajun music has been influenced by other genres. Another Lonely Night, for instance, has a very fifties doo-wop feel to the melody and Do You Love Me has a nice, shuffling rockabilly feel to it; it’s just that both of these songs feature traditional Cajun instrumentation. This stuff, I can enjoy. And, anyway, how bad could a song named Johnnie Ain’t No Goat really be? Though the best on the record shares an equally ridiculous name (and chorus), My Toot Toot, but it’s a six minute live recording of a really peppy dance number. Anyway, on the whole, this CD is still pretty awful, but at least I can kind of begin to enjoy a track here and there. Strongly recommended against. 1 ½ stars.
tl;dr – vol. 2 bests vol. 1 by bringing in more influences from outside Cajun music, but it’s still an inconsistent failure when taken as a whole. 1 ½ stars.