Label: Mulatta
Catalog#: -
Country: -
Genre, Style: Trip-Hop, Electropop
Release Date: 2008
Format: MP3, VBR kbps
Size: 80 mb

When reviewing new artists, I have always made it a rule to listen first and research afterwards. Learning that this is elodieO’s first full length album comes as a pleasant shock. It has none of the clumsy, experimental moments that debuts often reveal, nor the awkward, poser bravado of a young pretender. Stubborn is the work of a natural musician - beautifully composed, pleasingly layered, and elegantly executed - a triumph for an artist who composes and arranges her own material.

A native Parisian now based in the Big Apple, elodieO is part of the LES/Nublu scene, a movement championing intelligent, electro sounds that often draws on World and lounge styles. Indeed, members of The Brazilian Girls, an affiliated band, feature as guests. According to her Myspace biography, elodieO’s sound is “a mix of ’60s Nico-esque pop and ’90s golden era trip-hop and down-tempo”. While this is an accurate description, it fails to convey the sheer range of influences evident in Stubborn. From the feel-good dance grooves in ‘Cuckoo’ to the smooth reggae and dub elements of ‘Attache Moi’, the album plays seamlessly, drawing subtle threads of genres into each song while retaining a unique, signature sound.

Don’t let the slick production fool you into thinking this is just highly polished, pretentious electro. Stubborn has an aesthetic integrity and content that vouches against any possible allegations of hollow trendiness. elodieO’s lyrics are dreamy and well rounded, dipping between sincere, poetic, fierce and even playful, all delivered in a voice that seems to be made entirely from liquid velvet. Her vocals are intimate, throaty, multi-lingual melodies, swaying between English and French from chorus to verse, and managing to make the former sound just as sensual and exotic as her native tongue.

The frequent use of choral vocals add pretty layers of harmony, and the miscellaneous and often random instruments employed - a slice of violin here, a note of steel slide guitar there - add a depth to the album’s art-pop electro landscape. The lush, dream-like imagery of ‘Milk & Honey’ has an almost tangible flavour, while her cover of The Cure’s ‘Home’ is a sweetly melancholy tribute. The effortless beauty of each song and its composition mark this album out as a fantastic debut.

Tracklist:

01. La Mer 5:02
02. Home 5:45
03. Cuckoo 6:30
04. Crazy 5:26
05. Wake Up Without You 5:27
06. Milk & Honey 5:56
07. Attache Moi 4:33
08. L'Attente 6:45
09. Unexpected So 5:36
10. Take The Best 5:29
11. L'eau La Bouche 3:11