Cute, but hardly worth the time or moneyby Anonymous

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August 23, 2008: Nouvelle Vague's choice of covers is a clever marketing maneuver, drawing in suckers for early 80s treasures &quot like myself&quot and the always seductive promise of lounge music. This is - like many films now directed at aging hipsters &quot again, like me&quot - a commodity offering a re- packaging of the comfortingly familiar. And while I find myself pleased at the very thought of lounge-like covers of 'Making Plans for Nigel' or 'I Melt With You', this album does justice neither to the originals or its attempts to recreate them. Perhaps the strangest aspect of this album is Nouvelle Vague's decision to only cover songs by bands of working-class males, relying too much on their singer's sugary-sweet delivery to make each song both an unexpected novelty and &quot almost inevitably&quot a disappointment. The originals of songs like 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' and 'Guns of Brixton' hold special meaning in the context of their production: the desperation of young Westerners in the midst of Reagan and Thatcher-era horrors. I do not know if Nouvelle Vague hoped to recapture the emotional weight of these songs &quot or just poke fun at it&quot , but the results are ambiguous at best and insulting at least. In the album's lowest moments, the singer's pointless side-comments &quot in 'I Melt With You', she quips 'I made a pilgrimage to save the human race &quot yes I did'&quot are fully wince-inducing. I actually had to turn it off, occasionally. This album's failure as a cover project would be less irritating if its performance as lounge music were any more acceptable. However, by and large, the songs are poorly executed, uninspired, and seemingly drawn directly from the sheet music translations. Most tracks feature minimally programed drum loops and cookie cutter synthesizer parts of a Burt Bacharach quality - repetitive, emotionless, and unprovocative. And again, the singer's phrasing is overly-sensual, breathy, and Betty Boopish. I'm sure it would take a lot to make 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' sound flat and disingenuous, but Nouvelle Vague makes it happen. So... as if it's not apparent yet... I dislike this album. More troubling though, is that this seems to be one more product targeting people - former punks and new wavers - who &quot seemingly&quot would be more critical about being delivered such pap, dressed in the clothes of their most beloved songs and artists. It suggests to me that this phase in music, which purportedly questioned so much about gender, class, and the good intentions of the state, was in fact far more shallow and success-driven than it let on. But if that's your bag, go ahead.