SOUNDTRACK: CŒUR DE PIRATE-Live at Massey Hall (July 8, 2014).
I known of Cœur de Pirate more from reputation than her music. But everything I’ve heard I’ve enjoyed. Cœur de Pirate is Beatrice Martin a Francophone singer from Montreal who sings almost entirely in French. And yet despite that, she sells out to Anglophone audiences because her music is so darn catchy.
In the opening she notes that it’s crazy that she’s a French-speaking artists singing in french selling out a venue like Massey Hall. She feels special and can’t wait to hear what it sounds like.
The first song is “Le Long du Large.” She is playing piano with a great band behind her. The song grooves along smoothly–it has a great catchy chorus with terrific backing vocals. There’s an acoustic guitar (Renaud Bastien), a lead guitar (Emmanuel Éthier), bass (Alexandre Gauthier) and drums (Julien Blais).
On “Francis” it’s just her on piano. The song has a very Regina Spektor vibe in her playing style and singing delivery.
“Ensemble” is bouncy and upbeat, just super fun.
Golden Baby” opens with a melody like “Come on Eileen” but as soon as the electric guitar soars over, it is a very different song. I love that she sounds like she smiling throughout.
It surprised me that she did an encore so soon in the show, but there’s clearly a reason for that.
Before the encore, she plays “Adieu” our “last song.” Shes off the piano on this one, only singing. It’s got a heavy rocking beat and guitar and it’s really great.
When she comes back for the encore she sits at the piano and asks “More songs?”
“Place de la République” starts as solo piano and it sounds lovely. After a verse or so, they add a bowed bass and strummed acoustic guitar which builds the songs nicely. Half way through, drums come in to give it even more power. It’s a terrific song.
She is quite sweet saying that “it makes no sense that a French Canadian girl could sell out Massey Hall…. just got to hold it together.”
She invites everyone to sing along. If you don’t know French, just pretend. It works too. This is the last song. Make it fun make it magical. She says that the song, “Comme des enfants” is being taught in French classes. It was a huge hit and the audience sings part the last verse. It’s a wonderful moment and always cool to see an artist overwhelmed by her fans base.
[READ: March 28, 2018] Cici’s Journal
The book (there are two books in this volume) opens with Cici talking about her journal. We meet Cici and her mom. We learn that Cici hangs out a lot with the neighbor Mrs Flores, a writer. Her mom doesn’t love that she hangs out with am older lady, but Mrs Flores is pretty cool.
Cici’s two best friends are Lena and Erica The pair knew each other since they were babies; Cici moved to the neighborhood when they were all little. They have been best friends ever since.
I give Carol Klio Burrell a real thumbs up on this translation. I didn’t realize that it was a translation until well into the second book. But I didn’t love a few aspects of the story. The problem here I think comes with the friends. Lena is sweet and has the soul of an artist. Meanwhile, Erica “complains constantly, but she has a good heart.” That’s not a very complex or desirably character trait. And that aspect of her comes out a lot in the second book, which is kind of annoying.
The girls have a hideout that they built –which is cool. While on their way there, Cici talks about how she like to imagine the stories of everyone she sees. When she gets up to the clubhouse, she spies Mr Mysterious. He’s a guy covered in paint, carrying cans of paint walking through the woods. What gives?
Cici gets fixated on things like this. Much to the dismay of her friends.
For some reason Cici doesn’t like to tell her mom when she has an “adventure” on the horizon. She asks her friends to cover for her. Erica hates lying to Cici’s mom. It’s even weirder to me when Cici asks her mom to drive her some places if only to look in other stores for more clues. She goes to the paint store and the paint store guy knows him. He says the guy is an artist named Michael Langer.
It’s an interesting mystery. What is Langer doing in the woods?
Soon enough Cici and her friends find out–the whole revelation of this story is awesome. Putting aside how I didn’t like the characters all that much, I loved the conclusion of this story. And I really liked how it then led to the following book.
The original title is Les Carnets de Cerise: Book 1: Le Zoo Pétrifiée Book 2: Le Livre d’Hector.
In Book 2, Hector’s Book, its vacation time. Lena has gone to her sister’s house (she’s an Auntie) and Erica has gone to camp. July is going to be a long month for Cici, especially since her mom is mad about her lying in book 1. On the plus side, the events of book one were excellent for Mrs Flores and even gave Cici a bit of fame.
When the girls get back from vacation, Erica immediately questions Cici’s motives about why they are hanging out. This is the problem with this character, why would a friend be suspicious about wanting to hang out. I find it weird and unsettling. Isn’t it fun just to hang out with your friend? And if she’s wrapped herself up in a mystery then blow it off or whatever.
By the middle of the book Erica is so mad that Cici is involved in another mystery (even though the first one proved to be super cool and fun) that their friendship falls apart. And Lena doesn’t even seem to want to stick with her friend. It’s all very strange.
Especially since this mystery is not anything bad. No one gets hurt, no one goes anywhere dangerous. It’s just an old lady and the library.
While she was waiting for her friends to come back, Cici spotted an old woman who did the same thing every day–got on the bus with a book and came back with the same book. Nothing odd about that except that the woman looked especially sad at the end of her errand. One day the woman drops something from the book. It is a library check out card and the only name on it (over and over) is the woman’s.
Cici goes to the library, talks to the librarian (breaks a little patron confidentiality) and learns the story of the old woman and the book–which is really quite sweet. Cici dares to request the book so the old woman has to return it and then she figures something out.
In the process though, she alienates her friends, her mother, Mrs Flores and even the old woman (somewhat). It’s a pretty heavy burden to bear just to get to the bottom of a mystery.
Things work out delightfully for the old woman in the story (it’s incredibly sweet) and of course, she is able to get friendly with her firmness again. I guess Cici learns to be more honest with people, too.
I have no idea if there are more in this series. If so, I hope that the kids can trust each other a little more and that Erica develops more of a personality other than “complainer.”
For ease of searching, I include: Coeur de Pirate, Aurelie Neyret, Emmanuel Ethier, Place de la Republique.
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