BYE BYE MANCHESTER
Melanie Pain
(Border)

With her second album, Melanie Pain has well and truly left behind the "one of various singers" tag she had with French band Nouvelle Vague. 

She has retained their new wave leanings, while seeking inspiration in Manchester where she teamed up with Ed Harcourt (yes, he's from Essex) for one of Bye Bye Manchester's highlights, Black Widow, a dark tale of revenge. 

With the help of fellow French songbird Vanessa Paradis' arranger Albin de la Simone, Pain, alternating between French and English, is refreshingly "nouvelle" in a pop world marked by unoriginality. 

Songs such as 7 ou 8 fois and Fluo, with its whirling carnival synthesizer eeriness, have a chic indie feel to them, while the grand organ grind of Miami gives way to wooziness.  Feel the Pain.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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