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This two-CD set packages together the first and second albums by young Frenchman Raphael Haroche, who performs under the name Raphael and is not to be confused with the Spaniard Rafael Martos, who has been performing under the name Raphael for much longer. The newer Raphael's willingness to risk a mix-up may not be as ill-advised as it seems, if only because his musical style on his debut album, H?tel de L'Univers (2000), is far different from the middle-of-the-road veteran to his south. Musically, this Raphael is less likely to be mistaken for his namesake than he is for another artist to his north; at times, the music is reminiscent of David Bowie, and Raphael sounds like he has a good familiarity with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The hard, yet melodic guitar rock may suggest Bowie, but as a singer Raphael is his own man, boasting an expressive tenor that emphasizes his emotional lyrics, sung, of course, in French, though they shouldn't tax a second-year high school French student in the U.S.American or French, it seemed to be teenagers Raphael was aiming at, and his first recording indicated that he would be able to find them without much trouble. He ended H?tel de L'Univers with a piano ballad, "Libre Service". On La R?alit? (2003), his second disc, he picked up exactly where he'd left off. Bowie was still an influence, but it was more the Bowie of Low that interested Raphael now, and he even seemed to have been listening to sometime Bowie compatriot Lou Reed's Berlin. La R?alit? had none of the driving rockers found on H?tel de L'Univers; Raphael had scaled back to a set of ballads with slightly atonal melodies, the better, perhaps, to convey "the reality" the title promised. On "? Compagnons", he even brought out an acoustic guitar and harmonica, evoking the sound of the early Bob Dylan. But electronics formed most of the backing as Raphael turned introspective and self-consciously poetic, even titling one song "?tre Rimbaud". The album seemed a surprising one for an artist who had attracted a young, largely female following, but maybe that was the point. On La R?alit?, Raphael seemed to be signaling that he was a rock poet to be taken seriously.

La realite review by allmusic.com