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4/10 Tiny Desk Fred Again…

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Fred again…: Tiny Desk Concert

Fred Again Tiny Desk

Fred Again... NPR Tiny Desk Concert

Belgian dance-pop superstar Stromae puts on one of the best live shows in the world — here’s a two-song set from 2015, presented as evidence — but his stage presentation is tough to strip down. To say nothing of the light show, Stromae’s throbbingly impeccable arrangements involve the extensive use of pre-recorded tracks, all of which are frowned upon at the Tiny Desk. So, given a simple three-word assignment (“no preset sounds”), his team set about re-creating Stromae’s music so that it could be performed in real time.

This involved more gleaming tech than we could have ever imagined when we launched Tiny Desk concerts nearly 15 years ago — veritable banks of laptops, mixers and synthesizers, with multiple producers working out of frame — but damned if every sound in this set wasn’t crafted and played live on the spot. Stromae and his team had to come a day early for hours of setup and rehearsals, and even the band’s clothing was handpicked from the singer’s fashion line, but what they produced felt loose-limbed and organic in the spirit of the series.

It helps that, as heard on this year’s outstanding Multitude, Stromae’s songs draw from a deep well of lived emotion. Backed by three members of the Bulgarian women’s choir Yasna Voices, Stromae kicked off his set with “L’enfer,” a wrenching acknowledgement of suicidal thoughts. The song’s chorus, translated to English, reads, “Sometimes I’ve had suicidal thoughts and I’m not proud of it / Sometimes you feel it’d be the only way to silence them / All these thoughts putting me through hell.”

From there, Stromae’s song selections conveyed lighter moods, but even his most danceable tracks contain undercurrents of darkness and conflict: “Santé” is a toast to those who can’t celebrate, “Alors on danse” (from 2009’s Cheese) embraces dancing as a way to drown out life’s hardships and “Mon amour” attempts to reassure a lover against a backdrop of infidelity and dysfunction. On its own, each track is a heady cocktail of painstaking craft and hard-won joy. Taken together, they form a portrait of a world-class showman at the height of his powers.

SET LIST
“L’enfer”
“Santé”
“Alors on danse”
“Mon amour”

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Alicia Keys plays "Show Me Love", "Gramercy Park", "Underdog", "Fallin'" at the Tiny Desk.

MUSICIANS
Alicia Keys: vocals, piano; RAII & Whitney: vocals; Ant Parrish: bass; Curt Chambers: guitar; Mike Reid: drums; Omar Edwards: keys.

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