{"id":22803,"date":"2022-04-21T05:30:43","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T09:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22803"},"modified":"2022-04-22T13:36:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T17:36:13","slug":"album-review-april-march-in-cinerama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/21\/album-review-april-march-in-cinerama\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: April March — In Cinerama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I\u2019ve written often (and recently<\/a>) about Francophone pop of the \u201860s and the way in which its wonderfully insular vibe yielded some wonderfully interesting and durable music. The y\u00e9-y\u00e9 approach \u2013 found in the music of Sylvie Vartan, Fran\u00e7<\/em>oise Hardy<\/a> and other chanteuses \u2013 drew from Anglophone (mostly UK and American) pop, recasting it in a style that was unmistakably French.<\/p>\n

One might not expect that such a narrowly-focused slice of the pop music landscape could serve as inspiration (or even template) in 2022. Ah, but life is full of surprises. The Los Angeles-based (and suspiciously-named) April March makes timeless and out-of-time pop music of the highest order. In Cinerama<\/em> is mostly sung in English, but the fingerprints of French pop are all over the album.<\/p>\n

For a slightly more modern point of reference, consider this: April March\u2019s musical aesthetic isn\u2019t miles away from that of quirky Japanese retro-poppers Pizzicato Five. Though March\u2019s style is infinitely more organic, she shares with that mischievously playful outfit a deep appreciation for the unabashedly old-school songcraft and arrangements of yesteryear.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s almost nothing about the album that identifies it as the product of a 21st<\/sup> century artist. Perhaps the crystalline production hints in that direction, but the arrangements \u2013 lush, creamy strings, shimmering guitar, outrageously tasteful drumming \u2013 are from another time indeed.<\/p>\n

Listeners schooled in pop may detect the influences of Curt Boettcher (Ballroom, The Millennium etc.) or perhaps Pet So<\/i>u<\/i>nds<\/i> era Brian Wilson; other sonic touchstones include Serge Gainsbourg, and (somewhat more contemporarily) French electronic pop duo Air.<\/p>\n

But focusing upon the arrangements and sonic character of the album threatens to give short shrift to the songs themselves. And that would be unfair; March (known alternatively in her role as author and illustrator Elinor Blake) and co-writer (and producer) Mehdi Zannad have crafted a winning set of 13 winsome, fetching pop gems.<\/p>\n

The team assisting March in her efforts is peerless; the Beach Boys connection is represented by the presence of both Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford (The Honeys, American Spring, and the ex Mrs. Brian Wilson) and Andy Paley. Sisters Petra and Rachel Haden help out on backing vocals. And the album title seems a subtle nod to the undeniably cinematic quality of the music; the songs often remind this listener of the delicious soundtracks for Roman Coppola\u2019s CQ<\/i>, or Roger Vadim\u2019s Barbarella<\/i> or even the Austin Powers<\/i> films, albeit without the winking humor of the latter. March is suitably serious about what she\u2019s doing, and the results are a delight.<\/p>\n

In Cinerama<\/i> was first issued as a vinyl-only RSD title in 2021. But thanks to the pandemic, that occasion slipped by the notice of many who would have luxuriated in the sounds of April March\u2019s musical oeuvre. This reissue-of-sorts remedies that and makes this slice of retropop available to a wider audience. Two bonus tracks are appended for this CD release, and the latter of them, “Friends Peculiar” may well be the tastiest track on an album full of such things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve written often (and recently) about Francophone pop of the \u201860s and the way in which its wonderfully insular vibe yielded some wonderfully interesting and durable music. The y\u00e9-y\u00e9 approach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,65],"tags":[4806],"class_list":["post-22803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-review","tag-april-march","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22803"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22823,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22803\/revisions\/22823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}