Marion Elgé

I’m incredibly indebted to Raphaël Duprez's excellent bilingual music blog “From B to Zee” (and which unfortunately appears to have gone off-radar of late) for originally alerting me to singer-songwriter Marion Elgé.

Hailing from Valence (that pleasant town just off of the A7, the famous - or infamous - “l’autoroute du Soleil”), Marion, thanks to a successful crowd-funding campaign, managed to auto-finance her debut 6-track EP “Je Penche” (with the assistance of David Granier - percussionist with LGS - La Grande Sophie) and from which, as a teaser, made three distinctly varied tracks available via Soundcloud to whet the appetite. 

The first track, “Color Me”, is unashamedly poppy (I'd argue that it's up there with Grenadine's “Bonjour Tristesse” as one of the pop-songs of the year),  featuring as it does one of those distinctively catchy hooks that burrows deep into the consciousness, alongside some nice guitar riffs which hints at an inner indie-chick. Unfortunately the Soundcloud link  has since been removed, but if you need yet another excuse to buy the EP, there’s one.

This inner indie sensibility again surfaces on “Vas-y”, a song that seems to traverse both contemporary indie-pop as well as the yé-yé sound of les années soixantes. There’s that immediate hook and melody that can’t be shaken and the  timelessness of the song is incredibly reminiscent of Mademoiselle Nineteen’s debut.

However of the three tracks that were originally made available for our listening pleasure it was “Je Penche” that grabbed my attention. The song is a cent-pour-cent chanson that steers effortlessly into that Jazz-bluesy territory that Zaz has previously made her own and illustrates how effortlessly Marion can turn her hand (and voice - there’s some fantastic quick-fire lyrical dexterity at play here) to various musical styles. This is a great song that be checked out in the quirky video below:

So impressed was I that I put metaphorical pen-to-paper and wrote a post for Filles Sourires, but the EP’s full release here Stateside (OK, so it was released here at the back end of October and it’s now December - but good things come to those who wait) gives me the opportunity to not only revisit but also check out the three previously unpublished tracks.

The first of the new tracks is “Aviateur” (a song also posted on Soundcloud), a solid up-tempo pop-song, infused with a liberal sprinkling of rock riffs, refrains (plenty of “wah-oohs”) and added pounding percussion, which Marion turns down a notch uring the verses, before letting rip again during the chorus. The song is immediately followed by Lèche vitrine, a short, sweet humorous and ultimately bouncy song extolling the virtues of window shopping.

The final ‘new’ song is “J’Attends”. This is one of those haunting slow-burners that includes the most gorgeous of lifting choruses. I’m immediately drawn to this song. It’s very much in the style of any number of the new and exciting wave of French-Canadian artists that I’ve been drawn to, such as Geneviève Racette and Véronique Bilodeau. There’s a timeless quality to this song that makes it incredibly enjoyable to listen to.

“Je Penche” is a solid and confident debut release, with which Marion Elgé demonstrates that she’s quite comfortable expressing several different styles - pop, rock and impressively jazzy-blues chansons - and an artist I’ll hopefully be hearing some more of...

Marion Elgé “Je Penche” (iTunes), (Amazon), (7digital)