American French Pop

Elinore Blake (a.k.a. April March)

The title of this post is somewhat misleading since it would have you thinking that someone in America was recording French pop. The truth is that this post is about an American artist in France. The American I’m talking about is April March who has had an interesting and expansive career which has included writing and animating for Ren & Stimpy, recording several unreleased demos with Brian Wilson, and playing with a number of bands (i.e. the Makers, Los Cincos, and the Shitbirds). Recently, however, she released her second solo album, Triggers, with the help of French pop producer Bertrand Burgalat.

Bertrand Burgalat & April March

On Triggers, April March and Bertrand Burgalat look back at the French pop of the 60’s and reintroduce it to a new era of music. What results is a charmingly beautiful album with March’s light, airy vocals adding the perfect dose of sweetness to each track. And every song seems to explore new musical directions while still maintaining the same feel as the rest of the album. The result is a varied and yet stable sound throughout Triggers.

Take, for example, two tracks that appear next to each other: “Somewhere Up Above” and “Coral Bracelet.” The former sounds more like a pop flavored, uptempo indie rock song whereas the latter has a sweeter, more laid back sound that is not quite as heavy on the guitars as the former. “Coral Barcelet” also sounds like something from a spy movie in between the choruses, which demonstrates another point about April March’s music: it can be stylistically frantic within a song. Like I was saying about “Coral Bracelet” it sounds like a spy movie song at first and then goes into sugary sweet, high spirited chorus filled with symphonic ambience. Then it goes back to sounding like spy movie material. The chorus also expands every time you hear it, so it will be much more complex later in the song than the first time through. But like I said before, the music maintains a steady balance no matter how adventurous it may get.

Buy April March’s album Triggers

April March – Somewhere Up Above
April March – Coral Bracelet