Tara - “The Gift”

Century Records
2008 (1387)

I remember my first encounter with Tara, it was in an Iranian music store located in Stockholm back in mid 90's. Long before entering the industry. Her debut album "Aayene" was released a while after her departure to the American continent. A few years later we saw her all wet and soaped-up in her sexy and controversial video-clip for "Aghaa Baalaasar", a piece created by none other than Hatef! Tara is now back, after six years of semi-absence, with her third full-length album entitled "The Gift". The nine-track collection is the work of Bahram Banki who is the main creator and producer, Manouchehr Cheshmazar, Shahram Azar, Brian Wayy, Maryam Asadi, Yaser Mahmoodi, Soheila, Kamran Yasnafar and Tara herself. The CD comes in a nice slipcase. Even though it was a challenge removing the slip from the jewel-case, without ripping it apart!

The album opens with "Mitarsam Aashegh Besham". A Persian POP song a la 90's with that particular time's usual guest performance by Rahmanpanah and his TAAR! The song enjoys a rather average Cheshmazar arrangement.

Followed by a BANDARI song which enjoys a rather average arrangement by Shahram Azar. "Khaabe Bandar" is generic and will hardly stand out amongst alike.

With the third song begins the stronger portion of the album! "Atr" sounds very 90´s and is marked with the name of Brian Wayy. Brian, or Farhad, is since a couple of years back less active in the Iranian industry while he was a rejuvenating force in the industry back in the 90's. I've many times praised his achievements in my reviews, as well as noting the works influenced by his touch.

The Afghan-POP inspired title-track is my favorite from the album! "Hediye" is sweetly RETRO and brings back the harmonious sound of the 80´s. It’s the kind of songs which popped up just in time for NOROOZ, back in the days. Strangely there is something in this song which reminds me of New Order's "True Faith"! Do you happen to pick up on it as well?!

"Mosaafer" reminds me of Mahshar's (wrongly known as Dj Maryam) Persian TECHNO sound. Speaking of Brian Wayy's influences in the Iranian music which still can be heard today, the violin-part of this song takes us back to his beautiful arrangement for The BOYZ is "Saaye"! An arrangement which's foot-prints can even be traced in Fereydoun's "Gharibe" album!

Next comes another 6/8 tracks, even this one rather OLD-SCHOOL and 80's inspired. Sadly it won’t serve any other purpose than as a filler in current context!

"Velam Kon" has a European flavor to its HOUSE, courtesy of Shahram Azar's arrangement. The very same feature happens to save its rather happy chorus from falling flat by turning things calculatedly euphoric!

You are not hearing things wrong! The lyrics do tell what you hear them tell! A song called LAS VEGAS could rightfully be expected to be a song about the temptations of the sin city which never sleeps. But you have to keep in mind that we are Iranians, we don't do sins! Oh no sir!! ...Well, I do! But I'm an exception which confirms the rule! hehe! So a LAS VEGAS song made for an Iranian market with a Christmas baked in its title can ONLY be a non-commissioned special-occasion anthem for the annual reunion of the Iranians in a desert oasis to celebrate a non-Iranian holiday in a very Iranian-way! Namely concert cons! Bahram Banki states that he was inspired to write this song and to be honest I like the rather unconventional theme, even though bordering on a KHALTOOR track stylistically. Well, sooner or later someone would have done it, so why not Bahram? I just wish the technical quality of the song had been better than what it is.

The next track falls in a similar category and quality really. It’s a World Cup song which we heard back in the 2006. Unfortunately despite the sentimental value of this song, which in retrospect reminds more of our gigantic loss than anything else, everything else in this song feels far too underdeveloped and obsolete!

Tara was recently nominated by yours-truly as the 2008 BEST FEMALE ARTIST! The decision was taken in last minutes really, since by that time no other female artist had really released an album in 2008 which could meet the criterion. So I was actually considering leaving it blank until I heard Tara's "The Gift". Which in my books passed the test. "The Gift" is not a completely consistent album though, mainly in terms of quality. While the Western style materials are solid, even though hardly current, the Iranian style tracks suffer from critical underdevelopment in terms of construction and commerciality. Nevertheless it is the strongest "Persian POP" collection released by a female artist in the past year and most importantly the strongest collection ever released by the songstress.

Overall Performance: +
Artistic Ambition: +
Commercial Potential: +
Technical Quality: ++
Aesthetic Presentation: ++
Ethical Adherence: +++
[ +++ > --- ]