Rating: * * * *
Verdict: French singer and Beck make a staunch and saucy pairing
Charlotte Gainsbourg - the 38-year-old singer, actress and daughter of French music star Serge Gainsbourg and British actress Jane Birkin - hooks up with oddball American singer-songwriter Beck on her third album. Although on the surface it's Gainsbourg's baby, Beck wrote and produced all but one of the 13 songs - and it has many of the musical maverick's trademark twists and quirks. There are decrepit beats, an endless array of guitar and bass textures, and electronic sorcery alongside shrill and silky strings and dozens of other orchestral instruments - while Gainsbourg pants and serenades beautifully above it all.
Though she doesn't have a strong voice, it's haunting, saucy, and memorable. Its best quality, however, is that it can turn staunch and crackly, like on Greenwich Mean Time, where she comes across like leather-clad rocker Alison Mosshart of the Dead Weather and the Kills.
The making and recording of the album was influenced by Gainsbourg's lead role in controversial Lars von Trier film Antichrist, which caused a stir last year because of its sexual violence and explicit sex scenes.
There is nothing as harrowing here as the film was supposed to be, but it is an album of extremes - albeit subtle ones.
The music morphs moves from the dulcet musicbox mood of In the End, the seductive coo of Le Chat Du Cafe Des Artistes, and jaunty ode Dandelion, to the heavy-handed stomp of Heaven Can Wait, the agitating and pinging primal beats on IRM, and the cool swagger and twang of Trick Pony. It's these tougher tracks that stand up best, because while Gainsbourg's cooing and more whimsical performances are lovely and soothing, they don't quite have the same attitude.
