Kenza

I have no frame of reference from which to judge this. And yet I love it. It loses an entire star because of Imagine.

wow, this guy managed to inject a bit of life in to imagine. The point of this whole list is to go out of your comfort zone and listen to some stuff you wouldn't choose to and this definitely fits the bill. however weirdly i've probably heard this album more than most as it seems this is a standard issue CD for taxi drivers.

I coudn't figure out any way to listen to this album, so instead, I'm going to leave notes for Want One by Rufus Wainwright. Only because I saw that this list already offered up Want Two and I'm like "Want Two? The fuck is wrong with this list?" Because Want One is every good part of Rufus Wainwright in one album. If you're not won over by the first two tracks of Want One, then... then you probably wouldn't like the rest of it. But it's one the perfect albums and I would give it 5 stars. Maybe Khaled's Kenza is exactly the same way.

1001 calls him the "king of Rai", Rai being a genre coming out of Algeria. Distinctly melodic with Arabic influence, Khaled shines when he doesn't sound so goddamn poppy. This is made distinctly worse by a cornball-cover of John Lennon's Imagine, though it'll be hard to top that one cover done by all the celebrities at the start of the pandemic. I do appreciate Khaled's Algerian background, I really do, but this is too commercial, too pop to retain many good qualities. The opening track, Aâlach Tloumouni, is the obvious standout here for being the closest to standard Rai music, but the rest is watered down. It's also a half-hour too long.

Pretty nice album and definitely not something you hear every day. Also, why couldn't the many people complaining about it listen to it on Spotify? I found it immediately and it worked fine.

Thought this was a fun album and nice change of pace from the other albums we have heard so far. Unfortunately with this album not being on Spotify I listened on YouTube and it became a major distraction - the ads, a playlist with the tracks out of order, and skipping audio (at first I thought this was my wifi but upon further investigation it seemed to be the source files). In any case I enjoyed the singing, including the duets, and the music was lively and exciting. Would listen again if I find another way to listen and enjoy it more.

Extremely enjoyable to listen to. Put me in a good mood and got me to listen to Middle Eastern music all day which made me feel good. The version of Imagine was pleasant too. I heard all kinds of influences, French, Caribbean, Latin. Or did those genres pull inspiration from artists like him?

I have no frame of reference or culture context to evaluate this by. However, it is - objectively - an enjoyable album.

kinda cool, never heard of an Algerian artist before. straight ahead pop with a mix of this almost bollywood style vocal sound. But then C'est La Nuit is a totally different vocal texture. Kind of a straight up cover of Imagine, but sure it's nice. Trigue Lycee is a fucking bop. This album goes a lot of places sonically. Goulalah - Dji is a prefect example. Wow what a great listen!

I was not expecting an Egyptian/Arabic sound but I'm so into this. I never hear this style outside of like, the Prince of Egypt soundtrack (which I do love). The lush strings, cool melodies, and joyful beats make me want to dance.

Super funky and interesting. Already saved it.

Again, loved the sound and instruments on this but fact it kept me from fully getting into the music. When the English verse of Imagine came on, it really showed the power of his voice and Noa (the female vocalist). The English and my knowledge of the song helped ease me into the rest of the album and I ended up enjoying it a lot. Great use of horns on Trigue Lycee and Ya Aachkou is an absolute bop. Total surprise for me, especially enjoyed the second half of the album. Really a 4.5 for me but going to round up

Restaurant music Reminds me of a banging kebab

There’s a whole world out there eh? This guy sold 80 million records and I never heard of him until now! This is good and cool, except for the Imagine cover. Can’t get away from that song.

Such a diverse album. I had zero expectations, but this album has everything from chanson to disco. Sounds fresh even today.

Trigue Lycée Honestly easier to listen to than other albums on this list. Never listened to something like this before. Very cultural and educational. Enjoyed it but I don’t know when I’d listen again

Way too poppy, way too long, way too much imagine

From the album cover to the production and the 70’s throwback vibes, this definitely feels like 1999.

Cover aus der Reihe „Ein Schöner Mann“. Hab mich auch gefreut, etwas anderes zu hören, aber Arabisch hört sich für mich leider häufig rückwärts gesungen an. Im Vorwärtsgang und auf Deutsch wäre dies schlimmer Schlagerpop. Satter Sympathie Punkt für seine sonst weltoffene Haltung wurde durch gefährliche Homophobie (Ansteckungsgefahr seiner Kids durch Frankreichs Legalisierung der Homo-Ehe) gecancelt. Schwör 0.5

I FUCKING LOVE ALGERIAN POP MUSIC WOOOOOOO THE LIST NEEDS MORE OF THIS!!! The beats are fucking fantastic by the way

for all i know, within the pantheon of raï, people feel the same way about Khaled as i do about U2 and coldplay, but in the context of this list, this album is like water and I'm a man dying of thirst

1999. Rai genre, is a form of Algerian folk

This really scratches my brain nicely, Trigue Lycee will be on loop for a while

Very cool to have this mash of cultural music

5 stars

Modern Arab music with a mix of traditional style and more modern elements like drum machines. Beautiful music and vocals - both male and female. Includes a great cover of Imagine.

So good! Not sure if I got all the songs on it or in order due to having to listen on YouTube. But loved every minute of it

I'm not actually sure I loved this album five stars much, but it's at least a 4 and I'm excited to discover this genre of music! I didn't love the ballads but found it interesting how close to salsa some of them were. Interesting instrumentation and really fun.

Unfortunately most of the album wasn’t accessible but I really enjoyed what I did hear.

Quintessential Arabian sound. This is basically the soundscape Hollywood uses as shorthand for the middle east and it sounds amazing. Khaled's classically beautiful baritone is absolutely accentuated by the backing instrumentation. I wish I understood the lyrics, but that by no means detracts from the soundscape

The album cover is splendid, the rest must be highly effective at weddings, but does not move me in the living room. It’s happy, unchallenging party music. His voice is great, mind.

Almost had a heart attack, thought I was being forced to listen to DJ Khaled! I can only echo the other reviewers - interesting listen in parts, sounds just like a taxi in southern Europe, you lost me at "Imagine"..

Synes det var pænt ringe. Det er bedst når det lyder mest ""etnisk"", men selv der lyder det pænt meget som sådan noget kan finder til 10 kr i en kurv med cd'er. Sikker på det var meget populært, men jeg kunne ikke ryste følelsen af at jeg lytter til Algeriers Hansi Hinterseer eller sådan noget, bare pissegenerisk. Coveret af "Imagine" er nok det værste der har været på den her liste inkl alt det på Kid Rock albummet, wtaf

Allahu akbaaaaar

Tego akurat sie czlowiek nie spodziewal, bo wylosowac arabskie disko polo jest prawdziwa sztuka, Kenza to album z 99 z gatunku muzyki rai, ktory oznacza algierska muzyke folkowa, ale tutaj wysteuje ona w odslonie dosc zmodernizowanej opierajacej swoje brzmienie na roznorakich gatunkach muzyki popularnej, soula, funku, czy nawet reggae, ale gdzies wplata te elementy typowe dla arabskiego folka, wiec tamburynowanie czy charakterystycznie drumowanie, ciezko napisac cos wiecej, bo praktycznie kazdy song ma inny sklad instrumentalny do tego to polaczenie tradycyjnego brzmienia z synthowymi klawiszami, skreczami i innymi nowinkami lat 90 daja czlowiekowi kociokwik, a to wszystko podane w bogatej opcji, bo az 78 minutowej, gdzie zmiescilo sie 15 trakow, ktorych rozszyfrowac nie jestem w stanie, bo oczywiscie po arabsku, prawie, bo pojawiaja sie takze dwa francuzkie utwory, pewnie covery, no i na dobitke czleka zaserwowany zostaje arabsko angielski cover imagine, moze przemawiaja przeze mnie uprzedzenia, ale arabski jedynie do piesni religijno folkowych, w muzyce rozrywkowej budzi jedynie skojarzenia z danzo kuduro czy helikopterowymi songami, wiec na plejke nic sie nie przekradnie tym razem

Discovering not only a new artist but an entire new genre here...

Only 5% of the 8 billion people on this planet are native English speakers. I really enjoyed this. I had to find it on YouTube, when I was done I listened to some other of his albums from around the same time. I don't have a reference point as to whether it's good or not, I do know that I liked it.

hard to find full album

Man möchte einfach nur lostanzen und nicht mehr aufhören....

This was a ton of fun.

Fun listen! Warmed up to it as the album progressed

Not something that I thought I would enjoy but it was really good.

This is different, new, and fun. There were a few moments for me when, even though I didn't know what message the lyrics were conveying, the music did have a slight hint of cheese in the delivery. But, I suppose pop music often does.

Very enjoyable. Wish the whole thing was available in the US.

In the 70s when belly dancing became a crazy my mother added numerous 1950s-era albums from Mohammed El Bakkar & His Oriental Ensemble to our family collection. I became an instant fan and still enjoy these albums to this day. I very much enjoyed listening to this much more modern Algerian album. Some of the songs hinted back strongly to those 50s albums, while others were entirely modern and enjoyable. My only complaint was that this was not available on Apple Music in the US so I had to get creative to find the songs. It was a surprise to be listening along then come upon a modern dance track like E’dir E’sseba. That had me grooving on personal dance floor! I guess it speaks to the insular nature of living in the United States to discover that since the 80s Khaled has become a world pop phenomenon and I had no inkling of him before now. I love this!

I doubt that I ever would have heard this if I hadn’t joined this program. And it’s produced by Don Was, one of my favorite musicians and producers. The one false note was “Imagine,” which has been done so often. But I loved the rest!

tri massa o sonzao indiano, instrumentos e melodias agradáveis

A wonderful surprise, from an artist I had never heard of before, and a genre I had never listened to. Makes me more determined by than ever to visit francophone north Africa - perhaps the only place where Albert Camus and Andy Mcnab both set books!

very cool

I really liked this! Just a lot of cool sounds and rhythms, plus I totally fell for the sapiness of him and an Israeli singer alternating verses of Imagine in Hebrew and Arabic.

Długo kminiłem co dać. Niesamowicie wciągające rytmy, przyjemne partie instrumentalne, pomaga fakt, że arabski i francuski to ładne języki. No i, co ważne, vibe jest mega przyjemny. Po prostu świetnie się tego słucha. Chętnie wrócę do niektórych kawałków. Kusiło dać 4, ale z drugiej strony, zapewne nie będzie takiego albumu już na liście 1001, więc co mi tam!

Interesting! Not the kind of thing I would have discovered on my own so I appreciated this album

Really funky, although I need to listen a few more times to appreciate some of the duo vocal more than the first pass.

Rather fun

This is exactly the type of thing I signed up for. An artist I've never heard of and would never have listened to normally. I'm not sure what style of music this actually is but it sounds like an Arabic and Latin mash pop to me. Certainly interesting and enjoyable. The cover of Imagine threw me, but I'm glad it came early as I found myself liking the album more and more as it progressed.

That was cool. It's not often I get a non anglo album on this project.

It's good to hear non western music. Quite liked the differing musical styles on offer. Bit frustrated on not knowing what lyrics meant.

Brilliant stuff, I love it. And would never have listened to it but for 1001 albums.

I really liked this! And it sounded more contemporary than I expected

Je m’attendais pas à viber autant sur de la pop Algérienne, c’est peut-être dût à la sécheresse musicale du générateur qui a assoiffé mon tube auditif. Shoutout aux pistes en français, ont va les avoir!

This was sooo nice and enjoyable !! Been getting into Algerian music and Raï slowly over the years … feel like this is so far the best ‘discovery’ from this list for me

El último tema amé, y parece que Charlotte Adigery se inspiró en el. Al fin un disco que no es el típico rock yanqui o británico genérico. Canciones en árabe, francés y variedad de estilos. Nota: 3.7 pero pongo 4.

Khaled is an Algerian musician, and Kenza is his fourth studio album. The album is named after one of his daughters, whose name is the Arabic word for "treasure." This is a collection of songs of a style called Rai; Khaled is known as the "King of Rai." He is one of the best selling Arabic-language recording artists in history. Khaled's songs are an interesting mix of styles. He combines element of traditional Algerian music, vocal styles and instrumentation, with elements of rock and hints of reggae. Through the success of his music, he became a cultural ambassador and a pioneer of "world music."

Khaled uses alot of influences but yet his voice is an anchorpoint to this. Although his vocal approach isn't standard to regular western music I vibed with this. The length however is something else, I had to cut it in three

This is such a unique sound to me. It seems like a mixture of Algerian folk music (not something I'm at all familiar with), modern pop, and jazz. Not a ton of artists doing something like this, so I'm glad this was on my list today.

Cheesy and, yes, it does give me vibes of eating in a kebab restaurant. But it strangely grew on me over a few listens. I prefer the more upbeat and Arabic sounding efforts to the more Western ones. He’s getting a four from me

Really like this album although it loses a star for being a bit "pop". However, I guess it's meant to be that.

7.5/10 - I was not expecting imagine by John Lennon to just be in the middle of the album. I really enjoyed Trigue Lycee and Ya Aachkou. I think if this was on spotify I would listen to some of the songs quite a bit

You know what... I absolutely loved a good portion of this album. There was a couple of odd inclusions indeed, but the real Arabic tunes had amazing beats and rhythms genuinely brilliant.

I don't really have any context for how to judge this but it was definitely a good time. Very lively and upbeat.

Eigenlijk 3 maar boeie

Not sure how I feel about this version of Imagine. I didn't like Derwiche Tourneur very much, but the rest of the album is quite solid. Good mix of styles.

Awesome stuff.

I quite enjoyed this album - the arabic songs have a really exotic feel, and it's good to have an album on this list that's not English language. The downside is that I've no idea what the songs are about. Except the cover of Imagine. That's a bit dull and doesn't seem in keeping with the rest of the album. At 78 minutes, they could have omitted it. So, a nice record, but not one I think I'd play frequently.

Altijd leuk, die wereldmuziek in de lijst. Vandaag de bijdrage uit Algerije van Khaled, ook bij ons bekend van een paar hitjes die dus niet op dit album staan. Fijn dat er ook uit de Arabische wereld leuke dingen tot ons komen. Op een bepaalde manier zal een plaat als deze ook wel bol staan van de westerse invloeden, niet in het minst in de vorm van een maffe cover van Imagine. Het luistert prettig weg allemaal, al zou ik dit genre niet de hele dag opzetten.

The worst part about this album was the lengths I had to go to actually listen to the damn thing. Once I found it,I found an entertaining album that had me tapping my feet. It had range, evoked emotion and was a treat to listen to.

The music is a great blend of Algerian and Western sounds.

Cest la unit was a classic!!!

I'm a sucker for world music. I picked up a Rai Rebels CD in the mid 90s and Khaled was on it. I like the driving intensity. The lilting lyricism. Listening to this album, I am surprised by the diversity. Great cover of Imagine--I'm sure that pissed off the fundamentalists. His voice the real instrument here, forcefully intimate. Gets my vote.

Gosh - this was so poppy and upbeat, it was really easy to get swept up in it! I was indeed Desk-dancing and singing along as best I could. Really fun and a mix-up of genres although I could have done without that version of Imagine. That added nothing to the vibe.

I don't have the cultural background or language to really get this but I enjoyed listening to it.

I really loved this guy. I listened to him the rest of the day

Alright this funky as hell. As much as it's gun to shit on the French, i loved the blend of North African and French sounds. I WILL NOT pay forward their version of imagine because i hate that song. I did also get some disco vibes and I'm a pretty big fan of that so bonus points. Pretty long album and some of the songs sounds pretty similar so just feels a but stretched out. This is definitely something i wouldn't have listened too without this list and glad i did. Gonna lock in a 4/5 for this one.

Honestly, this is a really great album, with the exception of the cover of Imagine, which sounds nice enough, but I can never get over how vacuous that sound is. Overall, it's a really solid album. Great production. The dueling male/female voices sound great together. The music ranges a lot, but it all fits together well 4/5

This is the kind of music I want to discover, even when I don't thoroughly enjoy it. I liked the mixture of styles. The version of "Imagine" was not offensive to me (although the song itself is already saturated). I liked the Algerian French accent in some songs. It's far from something remarkable to me, but its inclusion on the list is fair, and it was a good listening session, with more than a lot of British underground electronic music from what the list is falling in love with.

Fun change of pace. Really enjoyed a decent bit of these. Rating: 4.3

Dance music with middle eastern influence. I very much enjoyed the music, the vocals were less inspiring. Low point was an Arabic version of “Imagine”, which kind of put a stop to the whole groove, and loses the album one star. C’est la Nuit was one of my favorite tracks, probably because it is in French, which I can understand. But loved the first track as well. Good listen! It’s a shame it’s not on Spotify. Listened on YouTube and had to tolerate ad breaks. I’ll look for more of his music!

Nearly halfway into this challenge, I'm starting to encounter fewer and fewer surprises. There are only so many punk records I need to hear (though I like them enough). Occasionally I still get surprised by a new artist. Very rarely do I get to hear an entirely new genre. But that kind of find is what I love most about this challenge. Rai music is completely new to me. I can hardly call myself an expert after just one album and a handful of Wikipedia entries but it definitely sounds pretty interesting! From what I can gather, it emerged in poor communities in Algeria as a rejection of both traditional Arab values and French colonialism. The style appears to be characterized by political stances and incorporation of various other genres, most notably Western popular music. Though I'm mostly ignorant of this movement, I can see that Khalid is a major player in it and it's not hard to see why. The music definitely has its charm. It's varied and infectiously good. I can't help but put it on repeat despite having no background to it. The most memorable moment is also my least favorite, the cover of 'Imagine' which feels a bit gimmicky. But it doesn't prevent the rest of the album from being a great listen.

Had to cobble together a listen since it's not on Spotify, but YT has a playlist that is all but two of the songs. I had to seek out E'Dir E'Sseba & El Harba Wine separately but I'm glad I did, particularly for the former. A really fun peppy tune! Overall the album flows nicely, really good vocal sound and enjoyable instrumentation too!

Not on Spotify, but is on YouTube. I really like the more authentically North African tracks. The ballads and the cover are too generic to my ears. It’s the local flavor that is more exciting and interesting. Though, the dance song is a bop. Lots of variety here. Wish I could save some of this. This was fun and interesting. Wish there was more international representation on this list.

this was a surprise! a mix of so many different genres and styles and even languages. i really enjoyed it!

Diverse, interesting, well produced, round, accessible. Only imagine and c'est la nuit don't fit from my perspective.

fun middle eastern viby album with poppy arabic fusion sounds. Favorite track: trigue lycee other picks: c est la nuit, aalach, trigue lycee, melha, el herba vine, el bab

A world music powerhouse that required a bit of effort to find online but in the end, a worthy treat for your musical palette.

Surprised by the variety of the album. There's only 1 song available on spotify so I listened on youtube music.

Fun crossover album, and now I want to check out more Algerian music! This is why I love 1001albums! (But why on earth did they have to put Imagine on this album)

I felt this

The rendition of Imagine was awesome! Kinda poppy, but I'm really grooving to this one. Really liked El Bab, too. Has a Caribbean/reggaeton sound to it. A little long for my tastes, but the album was very solid to have on while working to tune out a bit while still jamming a bit.

this ate down

Excited any time I see non-anglo music on here. Could've done without the Imagine cover, but otherwise the album is fun and upbeat. 4* Not on spotify, and the youtube playlist I found had some skippy tracks, but that's not the album's fault.