With the release of “Big Boy,” the first single off Charlotte Cardin‘s debut EP Big Boy, which was released earlier this year and its subsequently released singles, the French Canadian model and singer/songwriter has not only become a JOVM mainstay artist, she has also received quite a bit of attention across the blogosphere for specializing in a sound that meshes contemporary electronic production with jazz/soul and pop vocal stylings reminiscent of the likes of Amy Winehouse and Melanie De BIasio. Now, if you had been frequenting this site back in August, you may recall that I last wrote about “Like It Doesn’t Hurt,” an almost drunkenly swooning and urgent single which paired Cardin’s earnest and aching vocals with a sparse yet contemporary production featuring twinkling and moody keys, undulating synths and stuttering boom bap-like drum programming and a guest spot from Montreal-based emcee Husser. Lyrically, the song focused on a turbulent and dysfunctional relationship full of ecstatic highs, crushing lows, bitter and aching separations which further emphasized the song’s swooning nature and the heartbreaking foolishness of feverishly passionate, young love.
Big Boy‘s latest single “Dirty Dirty” will further cement Cardin’s burgeoning reputation for pairing her old-school jazz and pop-like vocals with sparse, electro pop and hip-hop-leaning production. In this case, tweeter and woofer rantingly beats, shuffling drum programming and twinkling keys in a swaggering and sultry song that’s simultaneously a tell off and a come on to a lover, who has ignored and rejected the song’s narrator for another in which the song’s narrator tells her love object “she should be me but because you’re a fool, I’ll move on without you.” Ouch!
Directed by Sebastien Duguay, who also directed the video for Cardin’s “Faufile,” the recently released music video for “Dirty Dirty” was filmed in Montreal’s Mile-End section and reveals Cardin at her most unguarded, candid and real as we follow Cardin hanging out with a collection of dear friends and family, eating, goofing off and singing the song. Not only does it capture Cardin in her most nature environment; but it also suggests something that’s profoundly true — that having dear friends and family, who sustain you and lighten your heart and soul can be rare.