New Couer de Pirate album

The talented and beautiful Béatrice

Coeur de Pirate, also known as Béatrice Martin, is a French-Canadian singer, whose debut self-titled album was one of my favorite things of 2008. She released another album in 2011, Blonde, almost as beautiful as the first. Now there's another release, this time entirely in English.

The record is called Trauma, and it was recorded for the soundtrack of a Canadian medical show of the same name. All the songs are covers, and they are amazing, sometimes unexpected versions of songs you already know (or not).

The highlight, in my opinion, is the heartbreaking cover for The Libertines' Music When The Lights Go Out. Béatrice finds all the pain and beauty in this track that sounds a lot like it was originally about the troubled friendship between The Libertines' Carl Barat and Pete Doherty. Each word hits like a dagger, and it's wonderful and it's true and it's devastating at the same time.

It may be early in the year, but that's likely to be one of my top 25 tracks for 2014. Only time will tell, but you can place your bets after listening to it, as well as the rest of the record, on Bandcamp. If you like it as much as I did, you can buy it right then and there.



(still working on the best Films of 2013 list)