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| Yelle - Pop Up | Yelle - Pop Up
Source
September 7th, 2007
At some point in 2007, the American music scene developed a previously unimaginable obsession with French artists; Kanye West sampled Daft Punk for his booming hit “Stronger,” the hipster world wholeheartedly embraced the raunchy electro beats of Ed Banger DJs and producers Justice, and both of the aforementioned Parisian artists sold out entire North American tours. Now seems as good a time as ever for European musicians looking for stateside acceptance to release albums upon the world; enter Yelle.
Inspired to begin recording music by the chauvinistic hip-hop of fellow Frenchmen T.T.C., Yelle released a slew of singles with friend and producer Grand Marnier. After churning out only a handful of proper tunes, Source, a division of E.M.I., signed the budding songstress. Now she hopes to win over legions of adoring fans in much the same manner as Daft Punk and Justice.
Claps and whistles at the outset of Pop Up immediately indicate the album’s playfulness to listeners; unlike the dance-oriented nature of French stars on labels such as Ed Banger and Kitsuné, Yelle makes pop music that inspires dancing as a side effect. This shows clearly on “A Cause de Garçons,” a single in which Yelle’s staggered vocal work takes precedence throughout. Rather than allowing the instrumentals to establish the pace and simply tagging along, here she keeps her own time over a relatively consistent beat, thus dictating the song’s tempo through variations in her authoritative cries. Even on “Mal Poli,” a tune with a varying beat powered by glitch-heavy electronic twitters and varying mechanical claps, Yelle manages to overcome a backing steeped in influential musical additions to institute her time for the jam using her commanding voice.
However, at times she embraces the pace set forth by the instrumentals and offers only slight variations in her vocal patterns. This happens most often in conjunction with electro-heavy beats such as that which fuels the Cuizinier-referencing “Je Veux Te Voir.” Pushed by grungy, heavy fuzz accessorized by higher-pitched electronic flashes, the beat manages to shape the speed of its song more so than any other instrumental on the album. An energetic breakdown near the end of the effort proceeds sans vocals, thus closing out the song feeling more like a dance track than a pop offering. The closing “Jogging” shows many of the same characteristics. Here Yelle even goes so far as to mimic the beat with her singing by stressing various syllables in line with the fluctuations of the beat.
Though otherwise impressive, Yelle seems uncomfortable when working on slower tunes. “Tristesse/Joie” features a sluggish beat, and Yelle tries to smooth it out by wrapping her words around the various twists and turns of the backing; however, she instead manages only to sound sluggish and uninspired. In a similar phenomenon, Yelle tries to work with the minimal instrumentals on “Les Femmes” by crooning in hushed tones and in a seductive manner; once again, she comes off as awkward and out of place instead. Yelle’s discomfort on decelerated pieces solidifies her status to this point as a one-dimensional fast-paced pop starlet.
Luckily, she works that one dimension for all it’s worth and manages to craft an impressive debut full-length with a handful of thrilling pop exercises despite slow-paced hindrances along the way. With the help of one of the four largest European record labels, promotion from an expansive community of electronic music-obsessed blogs, and plentiful talent to her name, Yelle looks primed to shoot to the top of the music industry. And to think it was all “a cause de” a French “garçon” named Cuizi Cuiz. |
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Displaying posts 1 - 8 of 8. |
09:12 PM on 09/18/07 | Cootie Catcher/YNFB Records i want this. the tunes on the space sound radical. | | |
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10:12 PM on 09/18/07 | Awesome review on an awesome album. If your into this whole French Electro scene check out my music blog.
blog.youronlyfriends.com | | |
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10:34 PM on 09/18/07 | Awesome review on an awesome album. If your into this whole French Electro scene check out my music blog.
blog.youronlyfriends.com |
Check the other thread. Panda Toes, man. I'll probably link you on that Clipse fire tomorrow. | | |
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10:48 PM on 09/18/07 | if you enjoy French pop/rock music, check out Calogero...he is simply amazing. without understanding French, I still adore every one of his CDs. catchy and good as anything in the US. | | |
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10:58 PM on 09/18/07 | if you enjoy French pop/rock music, check out Calogero...he is simply amazing. without understanding French, I still adore every one of his CDs. catchy and good as anything in the US. |
Not so much on the rock side of things, but whatever. I tried to give it a listen, but I can't find a MySpace or anything of the sort. Sad days. | | |
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09:10 PM on 09/22/07 | After checking out this review, I downloaded the album. Although some tracks don't do much for me, 6 or 7 of them are fantastic. I can't stop listening to them - especially "a Cause Des Garcons" and "Je Veux te Voir". | | |
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06:40 AM on 09/28/07 | After checking out this review, I downloaded the album. Although some tracks don't do much for me, 6 or 7 of them are fantastic. I can't stop listening to them - especially "a Cause Des Garcons" and "Je Veux te Voir". |
Word. Very glad to hear it. | | |
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