The last news we had of Patricia Kaas was on the set of Claude Lelouch's film Ladies and Gentlemen, where the apprentice actress played a sultry piano- bar singer, wrapping her husky vocals round great 'chanson' classics of the past. But now the superstar from the coal-mining town of Forbach has abandoned the smoke-filled torch-song atmosphere of the piano bar and re-emerged as a raunchy rock chick with an in-your-face album entitled Sexe fort (The Stronger Sex). La Kaas's seventh studio album not only attempts to position the singer as a 'strong woman of rock', but also translate her famous on-stage energy to a studio environment.

However, while the electric guitar riffs on Sexe fort introduce a definite rock slant to the Kaas sound, this new album does not signal a radical break with the chanteuse's signature style. Sexe fort packs an unmistakable punch, but in reality it's not so much a killer blow as a polite slap in the face! La Kaas alternates bluesy ballads (Je ne veux plus te pardonner) and electric guitar anthems (Une question de temps) with admirable vocal flair and efficiency. And she has always had a talent for surrounding herself with the crème de la crème of songwriters and arrangers. True to form, Sexe fort features a veritable musical dream team, bringing together contributions from twenty big names in the French "hall of fame." Besides regular Kaas collaborators Jean-Jacques Goldman, Pascal Obispo and loyal-from-the-early-days songwriter François Bernheim, Francis Cabrel and Etienne Roda-Gil have both contributed a song to the album. What's more, Renaud - a singer who is not exactly known as a 'pen-for-hire' – has put his songwriting cap on for Sexe fort, penning the elegant ballad La nuit est mauve. Former Téléphone star Louis Bertignac, fresh from his success with Carla Bruni, has also offered his services to La Kaas, pumping out a few well-chosen guitar chords here and there.

Patricia Kaas, a past expert in six-figure sales, can hardly be said to have gone out on a limb and taken risks with her new album. Having said that, however, Sexe fort is more than a clumsily strung-together series of songs aimed purely at the charts. And our considered opinion is that what Sexe fort loses in audacity is more than compensated for in delicacy and sensitivity. For La Kaas combines her upfront rock rhythms with subtle touches of femininity and intimate themes, baring her soul on songs such as Je le garde pour toi, Ma blessure and J'en tremblerai encore (these last two touching on the deaths of her mother and brother). These moments of personal fragility, expressed in la Kaas's powerful tones, more than make up for moments of musical laxity such as Abbé caillou (an overly sentimental tribute to L'Abbé Pierre, who recently figured alongside Kaas in a Journal du Dimanche poll regarding 'France's most popular celebrities').

Sceptical critics may well dismiss On pourrait – a surprise duet uniting Kaas (now based in Zurich) and nomadic Swiss music star Stephan Eicher – as an opportunistic pairing born of the fact both singers now share the same manager. But the track (orchestrated by Jean-Jacques Goldman) holds its own as a hearty FM rock ballad complete with gently raging guitars. In short, while La Kaas's seventh album never really breaks with musical conformity, it shines with professional polish. And perhaps this is, after all, the secret of the Forbach diva's on-going success.