Music / Tourist

Tourist is the third and most commercially succesful album by French Nu Jazz artist St Germain (pseudonym of Ludovic Navarre). It was released in 2000 and quickly became a crossover success both with fans of Jazz and Dance thanks to the international hits "Rose Rouge", "So Flute" and "Sure Thing". The album was remastered in 2012.

Tracklist

1. "Rose Rouge" (7:02)
2. "Montego Bay Spleen" (5:44)
3. "So Flute" (8:31)
4. "Land Of..." (7:52)
5. "Latin Note" (5:59)
6. "Sure Thing" (6:22)
7. "Pont des Arts" (7:27)
8. "La Goutte d'Or" (6:18)
9. "What You Think About..." (4:47)

I want these tropes to get together

• Alliterative Title: "Rose Rouge".
• Blues: "Sure Thing", a melancholic track with a John Lee Hooker sample.
• Deliberately Monochrome and Design Student's Orgasm: The cover. An old photograph from the early 1900s, with some color added to it.
• Gratuitous French: Not exactly gratuitous since this is a French album, but it's notable since they are the only two track titles in French: "Pont des Arts" ("Bridge of Art") and "La Goutte d'Or" ("The Taste of Gold").
• Indecipherable Lyrics: "Sure Thing" makes use of a John Lee Hooker sample, but it's quite difficult to make out what the man is mumbling half of the time. We can make out: "It's so hard, morning, droning, to you-ou, and that ain't right".
• Instrumental: All tracks are instrumental, save for occasional Studio Chatter, laughing and a few throwaway lines. The major exception is "Rose Rouge" with the lines "I want you to get together. Put your hands together one time. I want you to get together" and "Sure Thing" which has a sample of John Lee Hooker's voice.
• Jazz: All the tracks have a jazzy feeling, exemplified by trumpets, piano, bass and the like.
• Limited Lyrics Song: "Rose Rouge"
  I want you to get together
  Put your hààààààààààààààànds together one time
  I want you to get together
• Non-Appearing Title: The album title doesn't appear in any of the tracks of the few lyrics that appear.
• One-Word Title: "Tourist"
• Questioning Title?: "What You Think About?"
• Sampling:
  • "Rose Rouge" uses samples from Marlena Shaw's "Woman of the Ghetto" from her album "Live At Montreux". The drum and bass loop are lifted from Dave Brubeck's "Take Five".
  • "Montego Bay Spleen" uses excerpts from "First Dangerous Match" from the Scientist album "Scientist Wins the World Cup" and "Laser Attack" from "Scientist Meets The Space Invaders".
  • "Sure Thing" has sampled elements from "Windy C" by 100% Pure Poison and "Harry's Philosophy" by Miles Davis and John Lee Hooker from the soundtrack of the film noir "The Hot Spot" (1990).
• Shout-Out: "Rose Rouge" was featured on the soundtrack of Much Ado About Nothing (2013) by Joss Whedon.

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