Anyone wanting to dismiss Autour de Lucie as another winsome, introspective band will immediately be thwarted by the jagged acoustic guitar rhythm that drives "Selon l'humeur". Of course, things get a lot calmer for the next few songs -- Autour de Lucie have mastered the lazy, luxuriant sprawl of shimmering, unhurried guitars (that peak unexpectedly) and pouty vocals, promising a lot of happy afternoons for dreampop fans worldwide. Valerie Leulliot has just the right sort of breathy, girlish voice for this oeuvre of understated pop, and the fact that she sings in French (presumably because it's her native language, rather than to be pretentious) adds an exotic touch to the album; she's not a vocalist, you see -- she's a chanteuse, which is a step up. If you're like me, though, and any school-era French skills have been reduced to moments of contextual lucidity in the middle of subtitled films, the songs will have to "connect" with you on a non-verbal basis, with Leulliot's voice cast as a slightly more expressive instrument. But these songs have no trouble connecting. Consider the title cut, a spare, Spinanes-esque piece of musical intimacy with a brief but rousing chorus. And there's the rather spontaneous "La verite (sur ceux qui mentent)", threaded with momentary atonalities and intermittent sonic eccentricities. And though it's an instrumental, "Atomium" is a quirky concoction of bongos, vocal samples and strings that shouldn't be missed. Trust me: dismissing this disc because of a "language barrier", or because you think you've heard plenty like it before, would be a big mistake.
Autour de Lucie Immobile Nettwerk CD
			Review by George "Can't Think of A Way To Make Myself Sound French" Zahora

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