ANN, KEREN

Personnel include: Keren Ann (vocals, various instruments, programming); Sean Gullette (spoken vocals); Karen Brunon (violin); Christophe Morin (cello); Laurent Vemerey (bass instrument).

Recording information: Studio Philipsen, Paris, FR.

This is the fourth album from Israeli-French chanteuse Keren Ann, though only her second outing released in the United States. Recorded in both Paris and New York City, NOLITA finds the artist in mid-Atlantic crossover, caught up in Old World ennui and Manhattan isolation. Here Keren Ann, singing in both French and English, wanders through a gallery of sad songs, all captured in a rich, natural production style.

The opener, "Que N'ai-je?," has a mild bossa nova lilt, while the title track doubles her vocal in a just-woke-up sexy harmony (reminiscent of Azure Ray), eventually accompanied by a violin that doesn't know whether it's serenading or shivering in the cold. A mellow electric guitar straight out of the Velvet Underground's third album brings a narcotic elegance to "Chelsea Burns," while "Midi Dans Le Salon De La Duchesse" weds pedal-steel country to a "Sea of Love"-style pop rhythm. On other tracks, touches of harmonica, piano, and trumpet add to the urban, rain-soaked moodiness, but it all comes down to Keren Ann's spare acoustic guitar and sultry, half-whispered vocals, suffused with a romantic longing both immediately intimate and already gone.

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