Vincent Delerm Les Piqures D'Araignee CD

The opening song of Vincent Delerm's third album, Les Piqűres d'Araignée, will come as a shock to admirers of his sly, playful first two albums. Organ, pianet, bongos, and whistling create a shuffling backdrop for what is an unmistakably peppy song. This is the sound of a full band, for an album with big production values: Delerm has swapped his trademark piano ditties for something more fleshed-out, more adventurous. It initially sounds like a good tradeoff: the first song retains Delerm's knack for a lyric, as his casually beautiful ode to his lover compares her favorably to beauty pageant queens. The music complements his poetry ideally. Next, "Je T'Ai Męme Pas Dit" follows the same pattern: more whistling, some piano, a bit of mandolin, a la-la-la chorus. Again Delerm picks the loveliness out of a quotidian situation with his eye for detail. But the melody begins to grate, and the singer's poor voice cannot match the orchestrations. The influence of producer Peter Von Poehl, who guests on the unremarkable "Marine" and co-wrote the frankly ill-advised "Favourite Song," is keenly felt in Delerm's new pop dimension. It is an interesting experiment to amp up Delerm's sound -- but then again thousands of recording artists dabble in different instruments, whereas Delerm's charm was due to the simplicity of his sharply observed vignettes, set to sweet piano. Here, the arrangements often smother his voice, and threaten to make his astute lyrical touches seem banal: the minutiae he deals in are more suited to a smaller musical template. The most successful numbers here are the ballad "Ambroise Paré," whose sorrowful lilt recalls the devastating "Chatenay Malabry" from his debut, and "Il Fait Si Beau," which is sunny and hilarious, full of jaunty piano. These songs perfectly showcase the light touches that graced his first two releases. Elsewhere, "Le Jambes de Steffi Graf" is amusing enough but forgettable, and "Favourite Song," featuring Neil Hannon, is embarrassing. It will be interesting to see on subsequent albums if Delerm can find a happy medium between his own vernacular and the greater musicality that he was obviously seeking on this record. ~ Caspar Salmon

2006, studio release from French pop star. Recorded in Sweden with Peter Von Poehl.