Send "Coeur de Pirate " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Montrealgazette |
 The opening track of the second Coeur de pirate album, Lève les voiles, is both deceptive and highly appropriate. Sung by Les Petits Chanteurs de Laval and Les Voix Boréales, both made up of children and youths, the brief introduction to the album, while stirring, is musically incongruous. But with its scene-setting quest for a new destination, it introduces, lyrically, a theme of freedom and escape.Coeur de pirate is the alter ego of Béatrice Martin, who penned 10 of the disc’s 12 tracks and co-wrote the other two. While she has said the album is about relationships in all their phases, there are clearly plenty of cheatin’ and breakup songs here. And the protagonist in these stories – whether that’s Martin or a stand-in once removed – responds to emotional obstacles with assertive self-confidence. That’s also fitting, given that Martin continues to develop an enchanting artistic voice of her own on this sophomore release, which she co-produced with Howard Bilerman. Best of all, the vehicle she uses here consists of almost wall-to-wall pop gems that mostly evoke French yé-yé singles of the early to mid-1960s. If you like your confessional songs a bit angrier and rawer, or feel more at home when 10 seconds lapse between foreboding piano chords, you’ll have to look elsewhere....full text |
| Popmatters |
| Twenty-two-year-old Béatrice Martin, a Quebecoise singer-songwriter with an ear for contagious pop melody and a voice to match, returns with a sophomore record that radiates with jubilance and youthful verve. Her simply wonderful debut record of 2008 had hinted at what she could do, though it was mostly made up of spare piano-based tunes showcasing her breathy vocals and minimalist song construction. Despite its smallness, that album haunted me for months, and few Sunday mornings went by without someone in my house putting it on. Perhaps this is why on the first spin through Blonde I was disappointed at how big it felt. I missed the sweet atmospherics of the first record, those classically-influenced piano numbers that first turned me on to her sound. But, by about halfway through my second spin, it had become obvious that Coeur de Pirate (which means Pirate Heart in English) had emerged as a true chanteuse of the old school, capable of crafting and executing a complete and unavoidable pop gem. Riding 1960s-era throwback arrangements for all they’re worth, Blonde is a record that is both comfortingly predictable and excitingly retro, a highly successful apeing of a bygone sound that feels just right in an era of Adele, Amy Winehouse, Duffy and Sharon Jones. En francais, “blonde” is slang for girlfriend, and in many ways the titular concept provides the unifying theme of the record. Exploring the dynamics of love affairs from a range of angles – Martin recently ended a relationship with the frontman for Canadian popsters Bedouin Soundclash, and as a result their new band Armistice was shelved too – the 12 songs here explore courtship, romance, stagnancy and eventually breakup, but rarely stray into predictability or some kind of mawkish song-cycle with a “lesson-learned” or “you’ll get ‘em next time, kid”-type conclusion. Indeed, the record actually ends with a track called “La Petite Mort” (which translates as “the little death”), a timeworn metaphor for an orgasm. An ending, then, but also a beginning....full text |
| Pressplus1 |
| This is the second album from the Quebecois singer-songwriter Coeur de Pirate, whose real name is Béatrice Martin. Following up her self-titled debut, this disc is loaded with emotionally charged ballads and heartfelt lyrics. Blonde is a great title for the album in that the word has a double meaning in French: it describes the hair colour and is also a word meaning “girlfriend.” This is quite appropriate as Martin talks a lot about relationships on the album. The first track, ”Lève les voiles,” begins the album in stunning choral beauty as a harmony of voices fills the song with a dreamy, ethereal quality. The tempo and energy pick up on “Adieu,” and then one of my favourites, the dramatic “Danse et danse,” takes that further as she sings “prends-moi pour une conne” ("take me for an idiot"). “Golden Baby” and “Verseau” are a couple of her more upbeat tracks, and “Ava” is much slower, calmer, and reflective. There is a good balance between energetic, high tempo tracks and tranquil, slower tracks. “Loin d’ici” has a bit of a country influence as she sings “J’ai laissé mon coeur loin d’ici” ("I left my heart far from here"). I really love “Place de la république” which is a heart wrenching, beautifully written song about lost love. “Cap diamant” is another moving song that is one of my favourites as she sings “Ne me laisse plus ici, ne me laisse plus cette fois / Même si je ne suis rien pour toi” ("Don't leave me here anymore, don't leave me again this time / Even if I don't mean anything to you"). “Saint-Laurent” is another really great track with lyrics that just flow so well and compliment Martin’s soothing voice. The last song, “La petite mort,” ends the album on a very sad note as she sings about not having enough time in life to express your feelings: “Je crois qu’il est trop tard / Pour te dire que ça fait mal / Mon coeur n’est plus comme avant / Car il s’endort tout doucement” ("I think that it's too late / To admit to you that I'm hurting / My heart is not like it was before / Because it softly falls asleep")....full text |
Coeur de Pirate lyrics
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