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From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Racine carrée

Stromae

2013

Racine carrée
Album Summary

This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.

Racine carrée (French for 'square root', stylised as √) is the second studio album by Belgian musician Stromae. It was released digitally on 16 August 2013 and three days later physically in France and Belgium. Stromae expressed his desire to incorporate Caribbean and African musical influences along with his signature 1990s-inspired dance beats. The album, recorded in an attic, explores themes as diverse as alienation from social networks, relationship issues, discrimination, cigarettes and lung cancer, AIDS and absent father figures. Prior to its official release and afterwards, Racine carrée received critical acclaim for its thoughtful lyrics and gained comparisons to fellow Belgian recording artist Jacques Brel. The album was a commercial success across Western Europe, including non-francophone countries. Racine carrée topped the charts in France, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Italy, as well as reaching the top ten in Canada, and the top forty in Germany. In his native Belgium, it remained at the top the charts for multiple weeks and been certified twelve times platinum by the BEA. In France, the album has been certified quadruple diamond by the SNEP and become one of the highest-selling albums in recent years after amassing over one million copies sold four months after its release. Racine carrée yielded three chart-topping singles: "Papaoutai", "Formidable" and "Tous les mêmes".

Wikipedia

Rating

3

Votes

96

Genres

  • Electronica

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Reviews

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Feb 02 2024
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5

Alors, bedoel, Stromae’s Art, the way he performs, the topics he raises and the unity he brings to Belgians (although he sings in French) makes him one of the most import performers of Belgium this decade. Hope he is well.

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Feb 04 2024
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2

I'm sorry I'm tired and don't feel like going to the club tonight. You go ahead without me.

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Mar 24 2024
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2

Listened to three songs. More than enough to know this isn't my thing. I feel bad for the kid, because based on the picture I saw of him on the album cover, he's just a disembodied head. Sad really. 2 stars.

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Mar 06 2024
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5

Ok, now this is some really interesting French music, and I love the Afro-Caribbean inspirations.

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Mar 30 2024
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5

Formidable!! How Stromae puts dark and depressive lyrics on a heavy house beat is incredible. And the variation of ballads and more dancable songs is stunning.

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Apr 11 2024
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5

Masterpiece. Still an bsolute banger.

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Apr 27 2024
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5

4 or 5 Yea thats a 5 Every single european probably knows half these songs by heart

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Oct 03 2024
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5

This was one of the albums I thought might be in this project, so I was very glad to see it here! I think it's the best francophone album of at least the last 20 years. Love it lots!

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Feb 04 2024
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4

Vraiment bon, je connaissais bien du au fait que ca a jouer comme ca a pas de sens quand c'est sortit mais ca du bien d'avoir prit un pas de recul pour apprécié d'avantage. 4.5

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Feb 05 2024
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4

In a bit of serendipity my friend introduced me to Stromae a few weeks ago. Cool Belgian party music

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Feb 06 2024
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4

Nice one. Should have been on the list 100%

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Mar 19 2024
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4

This was pretty cool. Catchy europop. Didn't go off on too many strange tangents. Just did what it suggested it would. 4/5.

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Apr 05 2024
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4

I don't why I don't listen to this more often. It is so good and catchy. And I respect and admire his guts to speak up about difficult subjects like cancer, suicide, etc. Great job!

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Apr 23 2024
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4

surprise album! really enjoyed it, even not knowing what the heck they were singing about. Dig it. Gonna go listen to Cheese now.

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May 23 2024
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4

I didn't get much from this album on the first listen until the last few tracks. Upon a second listen, I was struck by the musicality and production. The use of African and Caribbean influences folded into a electronic framework including French House, Trap, and electro-pop works incredibly well. My French is not as great as I would like so I wasn't able to pick out the lyrics well, but from what I read in translation, this album is not shy about confronting social issues. Overall, this album is a success and should be better known by non-Francophone audiences.

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Jun 26 2024
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4

Glad to see this one on here. I listened to this when it came out, and I'm a big fan.

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Oct 03 2024
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4

This was a fun listen! Some of the songs hit better than others, but great overall.

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Feb 03 2024
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3

Stromae proves as interesting at least as many of the French artists featured on the main list. This album lost a bit of steam in the second half, I found, though there's the language barrier and unfamiliarity with international dance music (hah! all dance music) scenes. Brings energy without the cliché of certain French rap.

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Feb 04 2024
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3

Interesante por determinados conceptos.

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Feb 04 2024
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3

House ehhhh. French House. Not horrible but nothing I wanna hear at home. Take me to da club.

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Feb 05 2024
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3

DESPITE the FRENCH there are some catchy moments in here that make an energetic morning listen

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Feb 08 2024
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3

Starting out I was feeling this activated my main gripe with so much on the kind of EDM spectrum in that I just find the music boring. It grew on me throughout the album though and finished strongly. As always being unable to appreciate the lyrics due to my language barrier makes it hard to fully assess.

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Feb 11 2024
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3

I like tous les memes. Don't really like papaoutai. Everything else is decently listenable. 6/10

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Mar 02 2024
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3

Very interesting blend of Belgian/French dance/ world music. I must admit that prefer the other great Belgian group Balthazar though.

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Mar 06 2024
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3

Being a sad dumb monolingual man, I miss out on a lot of the lyrical content; a shame, considering that some of the themes I'm reading about seem like they'd resonate with me, and lots of people seem to find witty and biting cleverness here. But, purely going off the musical content, this is just... okay, for me at least. I like the sort of afro-cuban vibes I get from the beats, which blended with the french language and house synths makes for quite an interesting flavor combination. However, all the synth sounds and effects used give me PTSD flashbacks to high school dances I would be dragged along to. I can guarantee high school me would have given this one star lol. Even with that old distaste, though, I can't deny how clean the production is here!

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Apr 05 2024
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3

Dude really masters putting together some very catchy tunes and a stage persona to go with it.

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May 16 2024
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3

Enjoyable. He sings/raps slow enough for my French to keep up and it’s clever and often funny. The music is bouncy and varied. Not necessarily groundbreaking, but good to hear something popular from outside UK/USA. The list could do with more francophone albums (my 1980s musical love affair would have been satisfied with an Indochine, but not a Telephone!).

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Jun 28 2024
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3

Catchy and often foot stompingly fun, with a level of nuance and substance I don't typically expect in this type of music. I fully expected to tire of this quickly, but it gets more interesting as the album progresses. I feel like this album fills a couple of the many gaps on the original 1001 list, both for post-millennial dance pop and music from non-English speaking artists. I like how Stromae takes musical ideas that feel very traditionally "French" and flips them around, incorporating world music sounds to make them current and add depth. Fave Songs: Tous les mêmes, Ave Cesaria, Papaoutai, Carmen, Humain à l'eau, Quand c'est ?

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Jul 29 2024
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3

Enjoyed it, don't speak French so couldn't really appreciate but enjoyed a lot of tracks while they were playing

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Apr 10 2024
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2

Tough call on this one – while the LP picked up in the back half with better arrangements and varied instrumentals, I can't shake the PTSD of the 2011-2014 EDM period that this invokes in me. The front half especially leans hard into synth presets that defined (for better but mostly worse) the techno revival of the early 'teens and felt a bit flat songwriting-wise. Later tracks like 'Formidable' are beautiful and carry a quiet strength, but aren't enough to outweigh an album that's perhaps a bit overstuffed with dated content.

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May 12 2024
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2

A French electronic album. I couldn't understand the words which is fine. It wasn't too long but it felt like it went on a little too long. It's between a 2 and a 3.

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Aug 17 2024
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1

wow, je n'avais aucune idée de ce qui se passait dans cet album. c'était comme un rêve de pop électronique française pour lequel je n'avais pas de traducteur. c'est pourquoi cette revue est en français. comme c'est triste 2.5/10

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