AUDIO FLIES - The Metropolitan

Freeplay
Zooey
Pique-Nique et Jeux Dans L’Eau
By Cory Casciato
casciato@mscd.edu

     There’s a chance that listening to Pique-nique et Jeux Dans L’eau by Zooey is a crime, or at least dangerously unpatriotic.
     In light of the decisive “freedom fries” action Congress took to remove the insidious Gallic influence on America, it’s hard to believe French pop isn’t banned by a line in the Patriot Act or a secret executive order of some sort. That would be a shame, because Zooey (aka Matthieu Beck of Bordeaux, France) is a genuine pop gem in the rough.
     Zooey creates space-age bachelor-pad music out of warm synths, chill beats and lots of studio tricks, much like their better-known countrymen Air. Unlike the polished, inhumanly precise and sterile music of Air, Zooey’s groovy pop workouts retain a few rough edges. The shimmering pulses of robotic sequencers share space with nearly tuneless vocals. The clean production is offset by the occasional interjection of random bursts of noise. The cool, detached mood is relieved by the goofy lyrics. Those elements replace perfection with personality and go a long way toward humanizing Zooey’s sound.
     The album starts off strong with “Weekend,” a track full of clicking percussion, full-bodied square wave tones and processed, pitch-bent guitar. Beck’s nasal voice and accented English might ruin the deal for some, but the chorus will make a believer out of anyone who makes it that far.
     Other standouts include “Easy Landing,” a propulsive instrumental built around a shimmering arpeggiated riff reminiscent of Kraftwerk’s “TransEurope Express” and interlocking layers of chirping sine waves, a fat, buzzing, beast of a pad and spiraling, filter-swept synthesizer madness.
     “ Suddenly It’s Spring on Beaver Island” sounds like early Autechre channeling the spirit of Serge Gainsbourg. In other words, it’s wistful, seductive pop with shifting, minor key melodies and a French vocal (the only one on the album) that sounds dirty, even if it isn’t.
     Despite a fairly limited palette, Zooey keeps things from getting too repetitive by keeping the songs short and by throwing in the occasional instrumental track to vary things up. A cover of Weezer’s “You Gave Your Love to Me Softly” offers an easy entry point for anyone who ever wondered what Rivers Cuomo might have come up with in an alternate universe where disco never died and Giorgio Moroder outsold Led Zeppelin.
     With its quirky blend of Continental cool, glitchy synth-pop and indie-slacker vocals, Zooey’s Pique-nique et Jeux Dans L’eau is worth checking out, despite the risk of being questioned by Homeland Security for downloading it.
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Download the album from http://www.frannyandzooey.org/downloads.html