I seem to have missed some of LOLA DUTRONIC'S previous releases but this is the first full length album they have out on Marty Thau's legendary Red Star label. It's modern electro pop that is accessible and easy to listen to without being TOO easy listening.
The opener and single Everybody Loves you When You're Dead is a perfect modern pop song with great, slightly sardonic lyrics about the inevitability that you will only really be hailed once you're dead. The fact the backing singers for this song include among others Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, Jeremy Gluck and Eric Debris makes it worth investigating alone. Couple that with a cool video and the song should really be a smash hit in more places than it already is.
Happy Birthday is not one of the many other tunes with the same name but a new one by Richard Citroen who is one half of Lola Dutronic and sounds like the sort of tune a DJ would stick on in a club to celebrate a regular's Birthday. Of course you'd try to get the club to sing the refrain to the Birthday girl or boy, but it works as a party starter.
My Summer Song nicely re-works Femme Fatale into a gauzy chilled out love tune to drink Pimms and gaze at the sunset too...
One of the best tunes on the album is One Night a DJ Ruined My Life. This has Stephanie B whispering the song's title into your ear over a sumptuous dance floor backing that almost evokes a second Summer of Love style backing as the lyrics whisper away and the song builds, leaving you to storm off the dance floor as the DJ has in fact ruined your life once more by proving you can't dance to his tunes.
They make like a cross between Taxi Girl and Les Rita Mitsouko on La Note Bleue over a sumptuous beat and keyboards-led dance tune that's perfect for making eyes at each other.
Kiss Me is the sort of song you want sung to you and you know how you'll react to it when the vocals implore you like Stephanie does with all that echo on her voice. Whatever Auto tune there is on this song and any others on the album is done with enough restraint to come across as an effect rather than a tool to cover the cracks of someone who can't sing.
S.O.S. is that strangest of things: a Dire Straits cover that you wouldn't know was one till the chorus when it reveals this great duet is actually the Sultans Of Swing sounding like it's been reworked by Kraftwork and Lene Lovich into something far better than it ever was before! But then I hate Dire Straits. If you love that band you'll probably hate this version.
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Everyone's A Star the other "hit" on the album also has the most noticeable Auto Tune parts that thankfully don't detract from the majesty of this gorgeous piece of Tech-pop that recalls the very best bits of Stereolab and would sound perfect on several daytime radio stations I can think of.
While Stephanie sings softly in your ear on I Could Go On Singing, I'm sure it sounds like the moment to start moving in for the kill and make that move on the object of your desires. It also sounds like the sort of tune that could easily be reworked into a Lovers Rock tune as you bring the bass up and turn down the strings a little.
L'amour Est Bleu takes me back to my childhood watching those weird dubbed TV series that were on in the school holidays and I'm sure this tune was the theme to one of them. It works perfectly in this updated version and is a damn fine treat.
On My Radio seems to be reworking Je T'aime's tune with totally different lyrics and no vocal orgasm. Oh, and in the backing what sounds like the strings used on Enya's Orinoco Flow which is slightly off and discomforting on a very warm blanket of a song that generally wraps itself around you and gives you a great big hug.
I'll apologize if this review isn't in order as I noticed while writing this that the album isn't playing in order on my I-tunes and I have reviewed it how it is playing rather than how it was meant to play. That said I find this album very easy to listen to and has worked its way into my head nicely so I recognize most of the songs and welcome them.
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