Nguyet Anh – Saigon Lounge

Saigon Lounge, a collaborative effort between MC/singer Nguyet Anh, songwriter/producer Quoc Bao, and French arranger Laurent Jaccoux, is a perfect cure for insomnia. Like its title suggested, the album is intended for lounging bars, café shops, and maybe some make-out places in Ho Chi Minh City. Over electronic, mellow-out arrangements, Nguyet Anh delivered Quoc Bao’s eight familiar tracks like a really-bad-French-romantic-ballad singer. On “Vang Em,” her indistinctive voice comes through like an audio-reading device. Then there’s the horrendous Caribbean jazz groove on “La Yeu Chua Tung Yeu,” an unbearable smooth sax on “Cho Em Noi Them Trang,” and “Vua Biet Dau Yeu” is more like a disco joint than a relaxing track. Saigon Lounge is supposed to be for chilling out, but I rather kick back with Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck with Paul Desmond, or Stan Getz.