Ya Balad

Bachar Mar-Khalifé comes from one of Lebanon's most eminent musical families: his father is the internationally renowned singer Marcel Khalifé; his mother the singer-songwriter Yolla; and his elder brother Rami is a Juilliard-trained piano virtuoso. No pressure then? In fact, Mar-Khalifé cuts very much his own path and Ya Balad is by turns a thoughtful and wryly playful album.

Several of the songs here are impressionistic and cinematic in mood – rather like Ludovico Einaudi with effect-laden vocals – while others, by contrast, bring to mind very early Human League (in Arabic). The juxtaposition of these styles is sometimes a little unsettling but it's the electro tracks on Ya Balad that are by far the most interesting. The stomping, bouncy ‘Lemon’ is particularly fun and you’re left wishing there was more where that came from. Bachar Mar-Khalifé is clearly an imaginative musician with plenty of ideas; they now just need to be wrestled into a slightly more coherent shape.