BEAST

Sounding a little like Portishead fronted by Annie Lennox, Beast's self-titled album is a dark, creamy blend of spy music and electronica. Vocalist Béatrice Bonifassi croons drearily over Jean-Phi Goncalves' grimy key bass and punchy beats, giving life to standouts "Devil," "Out of Control," and "Mr. Hurricane," all the while effortlessly flipping between boisterous Amy Winehouse vocal flourishes and smooth Lauryn Hill (with whom Goncalves previously worked) raps. At the three-quarter point, things warm up as the drums ravage the foreground of the rainy Parisian soundscape in "City," and then the temperature cools into the slick-as-galoshes "Dark Eyes" -- a haunting, windy number that should send Beast to the top of the list of potential candidates to perform the next James Bond theme. If there's a downside, it's that the tinkling piano chimes, Ennio Morricone guitar tremolo, and trip-hop beats suggest that this is an album from Bristol from around the mid-'90s, circa Protection or Dummy, rather than one from 2009. That said, as fourth-generation trip-hop revivalists nobody does it better, and even if the album isn't groundbreaking, the vocals are top-notch and the production is excellent, a perfect balance between sinister and poppy. Jason Lymangrover.

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