Ange was formed in late 1969 by brothers Christian Décamps (vocals) and Francis Décamps (keyboards) who were later joined by guitarist Jean-Michel Brézovar, bassist Daniel Haas and Gérard Jelsh on drums. The band has become recognised as one of the most important ever to come from France, and indeed is still active although Francis parted ways with his brother in 1995. But why so much information on Ange when this is a solo album by Francis? Well the reason for that is quite simple, this is a full re-recording of the 1972 debut Ange album which forty years on finds Francis providing most of the instrumentation as well as the lead vocals. According to PMA the original album is rated at 3.82, but I have never heard it (in fact I don’t think I’ve heard anything by Ange to be honest), so I can’t provide any comparison, only what I think of this as it stands.
Probably the biggest issue for me is that I am a typical pom and only understand English, and this album is not only in French, but I also get the impression that the lyrics are extremely important given the focus that is provided on the vocals. That then leads to the next issue, I don’t think that Francis is a very good singer although there is no doubting his keyboard skills. There are flashes when this album really works, but for the most part I found this a struggle. No doubt there will be plenty of people who will explain that I don’t know I am missing, but while there are some times when I convince myself that this is worth 3 *’s, I know in my hearts that it is only worth 2 as the biggest thing it has going for it is that it is less than 40 minutes long. Not something to which I will be readily returning.
