Sweet Coffee – Tomorrow

(by Joana Sousa)

The profile of SweetCoffee (Patrick Bruyndonx, Raffaele Brescia and Bibi Diabokua) can be sketched in terms of past achievements, but the band can only be truly defined in terms of its evolving future.

Naked City (2007) offers living proof of this.

The Belgian trio quickly won a large and faithful audience with Memory Lane (2004) and its successor Perfect Storm (2005). But it was apparent from the start that their vitality would lead to constant growth and continual surprises. Today the formula sounds maturer and more exciting than ever. Smoothly recognizable continuity is spiced with lively sparks of innovation.

Songs like Don’t Need To, Holdin’ On, Special Kind of Feeling and New Day have been given extensive airplay, were welcomed in many thousands of living rooms and found their way into numerous compilations at home and abroad.

Yet it is SweetCoffee’s live shows that have always been the spearhead of their music. Fans were given the unexpected bonus of a real live performance with all the thrust and energy this entails.

The band’s long live performance background audibly adds substance to Naked City, the third and easily the strongest album yet presented by Patrick, Raffa and Bibi. Their live experience has increased their grip on song structure and creative variation and has led to the enriching introduction of organic instruments such as sax, acoustic guitar and piano

There is no abrupt change of style. For instance the groovy Downtown (the album’s first single) preserves the familiar SweetCoffee sound.