Sapiens, LLC
2007
Legends
About This Album
This Philly-born dance-pop artist has a fascinatingly traumatic background that might have inspired a lesser spirit to turn to a darker, angry genre or even something resembling a contemporary version of grunge. When she was a young child, Renée Zawawi was abducted from her home and taken overseas. To survive emotionally, she began singing and she was eventually reunited with her family -- although her mother had passed away in the intervening years. Following some work as a model and after winning some local beauty pageants, she moved to New York and launched her career in music. Although it's easy to see why a playful, synth-driven autobiographical dance track like "American Girrrl" could catch on and burn up a few dance floors, in the end Zawawi proves a more effective songwriter than vocalist. Her thin, whispery voice gets caught on tracks like the Asian-influenced "The Wind Was Her Only Music" (which chronicles her emotional journey) in a speak-sing mode at times, and she comes off like an innocent little girl (of limited range) trying to convey her intense life from an adult point of view. On a positive note, she has a strong sense of world music sounds and beats, and even with the unconvincing vocal on "Flirt with Me," the song's flamenco-Arabic instrumental swirl is a blast.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,5 and 12)

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