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Album review
Laetitia Shériff
Games Over
Paris
26/06/2008 -
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Teaming up with her old partners in crime, Olivier Mellano and Gaël Desbois, Laetitia (now based in Brittany's musical hotbed, Rennes) has given free rein to her guitar-playing and her creative imagination. True, her second album, Games Over, features its fair share of straightforward pop compositions such as Let’s Party and Memento, Put Her in the Picture - which will reassure fans of her debut album, Codification. What's more, after a couple of listens the sexy chorus on Hullabaloo is also guaranteed to drive into your brain with the force of a potential chart hit.
But Laetitia and her two musician friends have deliberately steered away from reproducing the tried and tested formulas they used in the past. The trio locked themselves up in the studio together for an intensive month of experimentation before finalising Games Over and insisted on taking their new musical ideas all the way. One of the highlights of their new approach is The Story Won’t Persist, a track which right from the opening chords plunges listeners into an ambience partway between PJ Harvey and Portishead. As piano and strings build to an atmospheric climax, Laetitia's aerial vocals soar into their own, sweeping listeners in their wake.
Another brilliant masterstroke is the trio's introduction of electro influences on tracks such as Easy Influenced and The Evil Eve. But what makes this second album a real 'tour de force' is the overall musical coherence structuring it from beginning to end. On that note, we have to marvel at just how easily the post-rock vibe of Solitary Play sits alongside the ethereal-sounding pop ballad Like Ink With Rain. Olivier's guitar, Gaël's drums and Laetitia's outstanding vocals push the songs on Games Over to summits of unexpected chaos and emotion. Without a doubt, this new album proves that Laetitia Shériff has passed from the status of 'interesting newcomer' to that of 'confirmed pop-rock heroine'.
Ludovic Basque
Translation : Julie Street
