EN ATTENDANT COUSTEAU [AKA: WAITING FOR COUSTEAU]

The Calypsos make this album worth mentioning, but there's really no excuse for the title track. It's stretching it even to call it ambient - on the cassette tape release it was cut from 47 minutes to nearer 23 minutes (no great loss, I might add), and it was still insufferable.

Ah, but, the Calypsos. The Amoco Renegades are the real stars here. I'd say bouncy, cheerful "Calypso 1" is the highlight - the steel drum just suits upbeat music perfectly. "Calypso 2" is certainly technically the best of the three, although its watery noises smack a little of bathtime rather than Cousteau's oceans if you ask me. "Calypso 3" is an oddity - a stately, solemn tune with steel drums - but Jarre pulls it off.

The thing is, unless you can pick this up very cheaply it's just not worth it, as effectively you're buying a 3-track EP with 47 minutes of featureless filler. I'd suggest leaving this and buying 'Images' instead, which includes Calypsos 1 (abridged) and 3 as well as three tracks available nowhere else, but then you'd miss out on 2 and the second half of 1. So might I instead suggest the 'Paris - La Defence' video, Jarre's 1990 Bastille Day concert, which gives you the full Calypso as well as a great live show. Funnily enough, Jarre used "En Attendant Cousteau" as a crowd-warmer to open this show - all of about one minute of it. Just about the right length.

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