Let’s say it straight away: Guérison (Healing), by Geneva-based Amina Cadelli, aka Flèche Love, is not an album to listen to at a socializing evening. It’s a deeply inner soul album that delves into the raw emotions of the singer of Swiss and Algerian origin, which requires careful listening. But the experience is worth it.
The author-composer evokes “vocal therapy to exorcize oneself from one’s dysfunctional childhood”. But it is also a return to her Amazigh (Berber) origins, through her mother, as well as a reminder of the numerous journeys she made to try to understand her identity.
Guérison is Flèche Love’s third album, after Naga, Pt. 1 (2019) and Naga Part. 2 (2021). These two records flirted a lot with electro and were largely sung in Spanish. For the new opus, the orchestration is much more varied, almost symphonic at times, with multiple instruments. The main thing remains the very personal voice of Flèche Love. She sings in French, in Amazigh, the Berber language of North Africa, in Darija, a popular dialect of the Maghreb and a little bit in English.
It is a sophisticated, very well constructed musical journey that takes us to the Middle East, North Africa, but also to the West, with classical, jazz and electro influences. And this voice which, sometimes, pierces. We also hear the Moroccan Oum and the Algerian Cheb Anouar in the first two pieces.
Healing often immerses us in dark areas, but we also feel the light there. It’s a complicated record…like life.
This musical journey about a woman’s pain represents a wonderful counterpoint to Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. She won’t sell as many records, but here’s a more original trajectory. Besides, I have nothing against Taylor, but read Alain Brunet’s review. You will understand.
There remains a riddle to solve: one title is called Money (Variation in A minor) and another is God Only Knows. I’m still looking for the connection with Pink Floyd and the Beach Boys. But it’s excellent.
We will certainly hear more from Flèche Love.
