Délicieuse Dissard

Unless you're fluent in French, Marianne Dissard's new disc, L'Entredeux, won't mean as much to you as other break-up albums like Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, Beck's Sea Change, and Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights. Written after the dissolution of her marriage to fellow Arizona-based Frenchie Naïm Amor, the album doesn't even come across as that sad. Lush, yes. Gorgeous, sure. Maybe a touch woeful, but still sophisticatedly swishy and even a bit spaghetti Western-ish. The latter can be traced to her main collaborator, Joey Burns of Calexico, who wrote most of the music after she gave him a tape of some of her favorite artists (including Serge Gainsbourg, Nico, and Ennio Morricone). The result plays like a Truffaut film shot in the desert, with Dissard breathily crooning poetic, occasionally risqué lyrics over twangy guitars, waltzing accordions, and sawing strings. Listening to it, you can't help imagining Amor thinking he screwed up big time. After all, who wouldn't want a hot French woman to murmur, "Thank you for cold feet and your hands to massage them/Thank you for the white sheets and the creaking mattress"? Not to mention the fact that during the 2004 presidential election, Dissard formed the Tucson Suffragettes, a cabal of ladies who rooted out "virgin voters." Wow, the French can make even voter registration hot.

Related Content

• David Lindley: Show Preview
  January 11, 2012
• Arthouse Movie Listings November 9-15
  November 9, 2011
• Serge, Mon Amour
  October 26, 2011
• Arthouse Movie Listings November 16-22
  November 16, 2011
• Learning to Deal With the Great Music Deluge
  December 6, 2011

More About

• Marianne Dissard
• Calexico (Band)
• Linda Thompson
• Government and Politics
• Politics

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Marianne Dissard plays with Swedish expat crooner Andrew Collberg and Marc Matos & Os Beaches.
Wed., April 29, 9 p.m., 2009