Ms. Kaas strikes a pretty aggressive stance on the cover of her new album. Caught in mid-strut on a stage drenched in blinding yellow light, the singer is seen thrusting a microphone to her lips and baring her navel to fans in the front row. But appearances, as we all know, can be deceptive! And the Patricia we discover on this new double album is a million miles from the raging young woman pictured on the front.

The songs on Patricia's new album strike a predominantly melancholy note (owing, perhaps, to the presence of the strings). And there are no real surprises in store here despite the much-hyped 'new arrangements' on many of her songs. At the ripe old age of 33 - and with a career spanning almost fifteen years - Ms. Kaas appears to be in danger of becoming a little too predictable, even though she spends so much time and effort trying to inject a whiff of novelty into each new album/tour.

Patricia managed to add a novel touch to the "Ce sera nous" show which she toured extensively throughout France and Europe earlier this year (and which features on the first CD on the double album). Enthused by a recent holiday in Morocco, the singer insisted on having an Arabian Nights-style decor on tour. And she opens her album with an Oriental rhythm, which sounds peculiarly out of place beside the rest of her repertoire. After this quick burst of Arabian Nights, Patricia moves swiftly onto rock, her voice soaring above the electric guitars of La clé (a song written by Pascal Obispo for the singer's last studio album Le mot de passe).

After this dynamic beginning Patricia lapses into melancholy reverie, crooning her heart out on Si tu rêves (another song written by the omnipresent Obispo). It's a shame this cloud of melancholy descends on the album so soon - and even more of a shame that Patricia chooses to growl her way through the opening bars of D'Allemagne and then forces her voice into an exaggerated howl. Ms. Kaas's vocals are sufficiently impressive without her having to resort to artifice!

The other great failing of this live album lies in the apathetic reaction of the audience. Patricia is quick to pick up on this problem herself. In fact, you can hear her desperately encouraging her fans at one point, shouting "Come on louder, I can hardly hear you!" The next moment she threatens to leave the stage altogether if she doesn't get a reaction to her smash hit "Mon mec à moi". Luckily, the audience - predominantly made up of fans who are older than Patricia herself (let's face it, these days teenagers are into Britney Spears!) - decide to come through at this point and gamely join in the chorus.

Even if Patricia wanted to break away from her old hits, she knows very well audiences would never let her and she soon goes on to break into a medley of Kennedy Rose, Quand Jimmy dit and Regarde les riches. Then it's on to her all-time hit Mademoiselle chante le blues - "the song which brought me to your attention in the first place!" and the touchingly autobiographical Une fille de l'Est (penned by the prolific French singer-songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman). Finally, jumping on the "let's-revive-the-French-chanson-classics" bandwagon, Patricia launches into a rendition of the Léo Ferré classic Avec le temps - although we have to admit she makes an excellent job of it, stunning the audience with her emotional delivery.

Patricia Goes Symphonic
The second CD in the double album, entitled "Les chansons commencent", gets off to a very dramatic start, strings soaring into a cinematic-style overture. But this is perhaps hardly surprising given that the second CD features the full line-up of the Hanover Philharmonic! The strings come into full effect on Entrez dans la lumière (a wonderful ballad written by Didier Barbelivien and François Bernheim). But this new re-working of Entrez dans la lumière is perhaps a little too over the top - imagine a Disney soundtrack turned up full volume - and we have to admit we actually prefer the original!

Highlights of the second album in this double set include a superb new arrangement of Jean-Jacques Goldman's Je voudrais la connaître (a song about a young woman's ambiguous feelings towards her rival) and a beautiful rendition of Les hommes qui passent" (one of Kaas's all-time bests, which gets an impressive instrumental/acoustic guitar finale). The new arrangements on Zazie and Obispo's J'attends de nous are altogether less successful, however, wavering perilously between salsa and dance.

Talking of dance, you can easily imagine Patricia waltzing around on stage at the end of her show, throwing out kisses as she gasps out her emotional "merci! merci!". Ms. Kaas has danced long and hard this summer - and by the look of things she hasn't stopped dancing yet!

Pascale Hamon
Translation by Julie Street

Patricia Kaas will be in concert in Paris at the Palais des Congrès on November 2nd 2000