By Brittany Kron | The Connector
After collaborating with Air on her previous album, Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Francophone dream-pop has since undergone a darker transformation. Musical experimentation with Beck and medical procedures following a waterskiing accident gave birth to Gainsbourg’s most recent brainchild, “IRM” (the French acronym for MRI).
Gone are the tender, hesitant vocals; they’ve been replaced by odd assertions, dark whispers and in-your-face eccentric thoughts that harbor unsettling elements on every track. “IRM” wanders heedlessly on the line of the surreal. And while Beck’s hand is detectable throughout the album, it serves primarily as a ground for her otherwise day-dreamy cloud walk through clear and stormy.