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American émigré turned Parisian expat Brisa Roche has assimilated a good deal of her adopted country's musical tradition. THE CHASE, Roche's full-length debut, is redolent with the sounds of French chanson, giving an overt nod to the arch cabaret-influenced styles of Serge Gainsbourg and Francoise Hardy. Yet Roche is equally steeped in rock, jazz, and the postmodern pop experiments of artists like Bjork (another notable influence); the album alternately swings, lulls, seduces, and packs a punch. Also impressive is Roche's songwriting, which dazzles with its variety and melodic invention--so much so that the 17 tracks on THE CHASE end up creating a multi-textured pastiche of 20th- and 21st-century music.

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