For many years, obscured from Anglocentric audiences due to recording predominantly in her native Quebecoise French, Montreal’s Marie Davidson made her breakthrough in 2018 with her fourth album, ‘Working Class Woman’, her first both in English and on Ninja Tune. A fusion of DIY electro-rave beats and sharp comment on the pressures and power of feminism, it saw the song ‘Work It’ (via Soulwax’s mighty remix) become a club anthem.
While Davidson’s catalogue declares her one of the most exciting electronic artists of the moment, this fifth record (credited to Marie Davidson & L’Œil Nu, and made with musicians Pierre Guerineau and Asaël R Robitaille, aka Essaie Pas) broadens her palette into the epic, Fleetwood Mac-style rock elegia of ‘Back To Rock’, the pastoral, organic rhythms of ‘Center Of The World (Kotti Blues)’ and the jazz friendly ‘Just In My Head’. It’s another fine collection from a true original, although only in the Chic groove of ‘Worst Comes To Worst’ and the title track’s retro electro-rock groove might fans of ‘Working Class Woman’ find firm linkage between both records.
