Tous les sens

Ariane Moffatt has built a career based on the sweetness of her voice and the novelty of her compositions. In the U.S., she's certainly less well known (though an appearance on a 2005 Putumayo compilation brought her a bit of recognition), but could be fit into the market of highly capable female singer/songwriters with a bit of novelty and quirk to their sounds. Moffatt can tinkle like Feist; she can croon like Sara Bareilles; she can put together a loping beat that simultaneously comes across as both stylishly effortless and highly crafted. Moffatt is vocally strolling and strutting, not just walking. There's a fairly wide stylistic range available here, from softer, more standard-format ballads to an electro-thump title track that uses a whisper and something close to a Rachid Taha motive to clear some surprising territory. Moffatt earned her keep on the Canadian charts with this one.