If you need to know what is Narukanaga, and how French band Camel Power Club gave their latest album such a title, you’d have to ask band’s frontman Léonard, who says he found the word in an antique spell book. Why? The explanation seems simple – sounds cool.
It seems exactly the approach Léonard and whoever is working along with him here, take to a hefty 19-song collection here – if it sounds cool, let’s record it.
And basically, that is exactly what Camel Power Club offers here. Some sounds might be ‘antique’ (as in ’60s and ’70s psych, soul-pop) some may be more up to date with their subtle electronic embellishments but luckily for anybody listening, they are ultimately cool and immensely listenable. In more current terms, some would call practically every song here ‘playlist-ready.’ Of course, if you are planning an all-summer party type of playlist that involves a lot of sun, cold drinks, and a beach somewhere in the background.
Many would discard such music as superficial, yet they forget that getting creative in a music field such as pop involves respecting a lot of formulas and restrictions, leaving you very little space for creativity that will take your music above being just run-of-the-mill pop.
On Narukanaga Camel Power Club are able to inject quite a bit of creativity to make their pop confectionery rise above the ordinary, which is quite an achievement in itself.