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Although Nouvelle Vague's 2004 self-titled debut was a joy to behold for most, one wonders whether a follow-up which treads almost the exact same boards was a wise move for the French duo, aka Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux. Let's face it, bossa nova re-workings of post-punk and new-wave songs can only be spread so thin; yet somehow, the marriage of this particular collection of laid-back lounge melodies with several sophisticated, cosmopolitan European chanteuses is such that they manage to pull it off yet again.
Purists/fascists will surely abhor the slinky sexiness that Melanie Pain, Gerard Toto and Marina Celeste bring to songs which were originally intended to incite fervour and zeal; but while most re-workings are generally sedated in pace and energy, they lose none of their enthusiasm or zing. In fact, Heart of Glass's shifting samba beat is so indescribably brilliant that it gives the original a run for its money; Echo and the Bunnymen's The Killing Moon becomes a shimmering, sinister lullaby and Dance With Me's bondage-fantasy-ode takes on a new significance with Pain's chic European breathiness.
In some cases, the stripping of a song's layers even accentuates its basic structure - New Order's Blue Monday seems barren but more balanced, while the apocalyptic pulse of The Cramps' Human Fly is both saucy and lounge-bar-cool. The piece de resistance, however, has to be the sinister gothic death-march of Bela Lugosi's Dead, a track smothered in twisted organ riffs and the foreboding toll of a lone church bell.
Such purposeful and carefully-constructed insouciance should be off-putting; but it's so charming, so cheeky and so utterly endearing that resistance is futile. Not quite as immediate as it's precursor, perhaps, and most certainly a total Nouvelle-ty, but still - Nouvelle Vague are definitely a Band Apart.
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