One For Jude describe their style, rather self-effacingly it has to be said, as “some moody pop folk alternative music”. This Parisian outfit should be more confident, since their third album is brilliantly off-kilter at times.
Whilst it’s fair to say that One For Jude are an experimental group, it is something they are particularly skilled at. ‘Une Fois’ marries the twin loves of classical music with the trio’s gloomy rock side quite brilliantly. Throughout the album, the bass guitar figures highly in the mix in the manner of Peter Hook in his heyday; the aggressive ‘Aux Doux Anges’ being the most obvious example of this. Meanwhile, the final two tracks, ‘Récalcitrant’ and the title song, are doomy but equally involving. Where the record does comes slightly unstuck, though, is in the vocals, which sound fine on the native language tracks but slightly awkward on the ones sung in English.
‘Bonheur Dynamique’ will doubtlessly sound a little too strange for casual fans of alternative music. However, their warping of song structures and genre-bending laments display a creativity and innovation which belies their decade-long existence as a recording act.
Web Sites:
One For Jude Official Site
One For Jude CD Baby Shop Page
Further Listening:
kIM NOVAk
Leonard's Lair Music Reviews 
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