Something Dangerous

1	Adam's Lullaby 5:57
2	Eye of the Duck / Princess Julianna 5:56
3	Something Dangerous / Princess Julianna 5:35
4	Janamaan / James Kaliardos 5:15
5	Just Like a Dream / Princess Julianna 5:26
6	Man's World 4:40
7	Layali 3:40
8	Simple Heart / Sinéad O'Connor 4:45
9	Daymalhum 5:52
10	Who's My Baby / Niara Scarlett 3:46
11	When I Close My Eyes / Myra Boyle 4:31
12	This Realm 3:49
13	Le Printemps (For Mona) 4:25
14	Like the Last Drop 8:24

Barnes & Noble

Like the music she champions and the heritage she embodies, chanteuse Natacha Atlas completes the circuit between East and West on Something Dangerous, returning to the techno-Arabic fusion of her debut nearly a decade before. Atlas, daughter of Egyptian and Sephardic Jewish parents and raised in Brussels and the U.K., began her career as a singer and belly dancer with the worldbeat ensemble Transglobal Underground. Soon, she herself went underground -- or, more accurately, to Egypt, immersing herself in the vocal arts and pop rhythms of the Maghreb. Along the way, she recorded with Cairo movie orchestras and mastered the vocal ululations of chaabi, scoring huge hits in France, Tunisia, Lebanon, and beyond. To cap all that crossover success, she attempts to cross back -- Something Dangerous, indeed. Stripping out the extended Arabic formalism of her more recent albums, Atlas brings her deep understanding of these seductive tonalities to bear on all kinds of Western pop, from Jamaican dancehall to trip-hop to string-laden ballads and even James Brown's "It's a Man's World." The immediate effect is that Atlas often seems like a guest on her own album, duking it out with ragamuffin MC Princess Julianna, warbling along with Jocelyn Pook and the Prague Symphony Orchestra, trading lyrics with Sinéad O'Connor on "Simple Heart" (Sinéad gets the chorus!). But longtime fans of Atlas know that such sprawl is her birthright, and she aims to encompass the length and breadth of her studies and her own cosmopolitan history. (Dangerous even makes forays into Hindipop, an observation on the U.K.'s growing Asianification.) Whether it's the cutting-edge production or multi-genre gallimaufry that hooks listeners, this is the exotic made most enchantingly familiar, proving Natacha Atlas's truly boundless appeal. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

Natacha Atlas' Something Dangerous is a bit slicker than her last, lightening up the beats and sexy intensity of Ayeshteni for more radio-friendly pop electronics, occasional vocal harmonies reminiscent of Destiny's Child, and lots of guests. Not that you could tell from the first cut, the gorgeous "Adam's Lullaby," on which she's backed by a gently playing Prague Symphony Orchestra string section. After this peaceful opener, the pace picks up with the dancehall-style "Eye of the Duck," featuring fellow Transglobal Underground member Tuup. Then the title cut gets a little funky while Atlas trades off vocal duties with the rapping Princess Julianna. A little later, Atlas takes on "Man's World." While her voice is lovely for it, the cover doesn't quite recapture the magic of her last album's success with Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas" and Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You." The collaboration with Sinéad O'Connor, "Simple Heart," is a high point, and the album really hits its stride in the songs that follow, with especially good interaction between Atlas and Niara Scarlett on "Who's My Baby," before mellowing out into closing ambient cuts. Joslyn Layne