Toystore

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Coralie Clément's third album, 2009's Toystore, takes the singer's winsomeness and delicacy to a whole new level. As the title implies, this album is brimming with cutie-pie instrumentation (toy Farfisas, glockenspiels, and ukuleles, just to name a few); it's the kind of thing that brings to mind Cake on Cake, Yann Tiersen (particularly his work for the movie Amelie), and Detektivbyrån. Benjamin Biolay's arrangements, intricate as clockwork, mingle pleasantly with Clément's romantic, wistful vocals. On the surface the instrumentation might seem simple and childlike, but Biolay manages to work a good helping of darkness, even malevolence, into the twinkling sounds of these diminutive instruments, and it results in some puckish, charming-as-heck music. "C'est la Vie," "So Long Babylon," and "Sono Io" are dark in the way a fairy tale or a marionette show can be dark; the syrupy-sweet materials belie the darkness and complexity stirring beneath the surface. There are a few moments when this sugariness becomes tad cloying — one track in particular, "Je Ne Sens Plus Ton Amour," a cabaret-style piano-driven duet featuring Etienne Daho, is a bit too soggy-sweet, like cake soaked in sweetened condensed milk. Surprisingly, this has less to do with the toy instruments than it does with the piano arrangement and the overripe production; Clément and Daho sound a bit too slick and theatrical here. Toystore probably won't be remembered as one of Clément's best albums, seeing as it sounds so cute it's almost kooky. Still, it's an interesting, and well-made, detour from the chic, windswept, and wistful fare found on her previous two albums.