Marianne Dissard

Paris One Takes (Trop Exprès Music)

By Molly Horan
Published: May 24th, 2010 | 1:00pm

Marianne Dissard’s Paris One Takes is a collection of live studio songs culled from her first album and upcoming sophomore effort. As someone who doesn’t speak French, I was amazed at how much content I seemed to glean from each track. “Les Draps Sourds” sounds like the soundtrack to a spy movie, the music quietly but energetically creeping up, then attacking. In addition to Dissard’s passionate, husky vocals, the song features the unlikely pairing of a rapidly plucked violin and briskly tapped drum; “Les Draps Sourds” often feels like it’s going to explode—in a piñata, not up in flames.

“La Peau Du Lait” is the bubbly counterpart of “Les Draps,” though Dissard’s slow, low voice tempers the sunny cheer in an effective hybrid of Regina Spektor’s upbeat tracks and Feist’s mellow ones. “L’Embellie”’s guitar parts seem like they were taken from a country album, but Dissard quickly pulls the strumming and the steady snare to achieve a kind of best case scenario at a coffee shop’s open mic night.

A fantastic album regardless, the fact Dissard has made Paris One Takes freely available to everyone out of a sense of gratitude to her listeners makes it even better.

__

Marianne Dissard official Web site

Marianne Dissard MySpace page