The Singles Jukebox

Enough of the British girls – apparently Quebec has them, too…

[Video][Myspace]
[6.27]

Anthony Easton: Why can I handle this indie sadness better then the indie joy of bands like Grizzly Bear? It might be that, like any early listener of Bardot, I give baby-voiced French singers a (unfair) pass; it might be that the piano is more accomplished, moves a little faster, is a little more sophisticated; but mostly it’s because she wears really cute sweaters throughout the video (never under estimate a singer’s ability to dress themselves as a reason to love a band).
[6]

Dave Moore: No idea what she’s going on about, but there’s a nice lilting melody and the lugubrious piano-playing is relieved somewhat as the voices and strings pile on in the final choruses. Provided it isn’t about how there are no atheists in a foxhole, I feel perfectly comfortable giving it a qualified thumbs up.
[6]

Martin Kavka: It’s not unpredictable, but it’s sweet nonetheless. The last thirty seconds, with swelling strings and multitracked backing vox, are almost transcendent.
[8]

Peter Parrish: Ms de Pirate picks out piano notes sparingly, encouraging desperately twee mental images of birds breaking the surface of water with their beaks. The urge for an overblown chorus is resisted — rightly, as it would have been ruinous — replaced by a string-enhanced coda and subdued bass. This is quiet, subtle and quite marvellous.
[9]

Chuck Eddy: Colbie Caillat/Sara Bareilles-style “sexy librarian folk” (as Rob Harvilla calls it) momentarily sounds sexier warbled in French, but the novelty wears off after about 30 seconds. Then you notice Caillat and Bareilles have better hooks — and theirs aren’t even that good.
[3]

Anthony Miccio: Without lyrics I can understand (the word “babies” in the title doesn’t sound promising), I’m left with kewpie-doll piano-pop that’s inoffensive but less than fresh — let alone novel — in a world full of kewpie-doll piano-pop.
[6]

Martin Skidmore: The tinkling piano and mannered delivery would certainly fit with horribly twee meanings; but it does sound rather like the magnificent Marit Larsen too, if Marit had forgotten to write a chorus, so I am not that badly disposed towards it.
[5]

Michaelangelo Matos: Hearing this makes me wonder if I’m not a secret Francophile.
[7]

Hillary Brown: Hardly eyepatched or growly, but a pleasant listen.
[6]

Alex Ostroff: Would that I had listened to this track a week ago. Wistful and sweet, with happiness on her lips, Coeur de Pirate is effortlessly charming. Waltz piano with a light touch and lyrics that skirt the line of cliche without ever descending into triteness. “Car sans rire c’est plus facile de rever / a ce qu’on ne pourra jamais plus toucher.” Blissfully unaware, I missed her set at NXNE this weekend — a big mistake.
[8]

Ian Mathers: Man, they’ll just give tattoos to anyone these days.
[5]