I had previously reviewed Mademoiselle Marchand’s self titled album on Inner Demons and found it to be a pleasant listen, so I was interested to see how the band has evolved, especially with more than the 24 minutes for a 3” CDR to work with. So let’s dive in and see what the good lady has in store for us this time.

We begin with “If I Sing Please Don't Cry, It's Just Poetry.” The artist describes it as "straight up 'crystal' drone (sounds like what I think a crystal would sound like so that's what I'm calling it), it's a drone as it gets, little to no variation throughout the entire runtime." This is pretty much as described, although the variations are slight but present (otherwise it would be the equivalent of listening to a test sine wave). The drone is pleasant, although I think it goes on a bit longer than it needed to.

Next up, we have the evocatively titled "Last Year I Died, but This Year I Promise I Won't Die," which they describe as "'Your House is Being Invaded by Thousands of Mosquitoes and You're Trying to Sleep,' I know it sounds like the track is going to sound horrible, and it probably is for most of you, but it's an experience I think is worth a shot, it'll be annoying, and you'll want to stop listening, that's kind of the point of track 2." If insect infestation is the feel that they are going for, they nailed it. This is a lot of warbling noises that are interlaced to keep it interesting. At 20 minutes long, I will agree that the track went on about 10 minutes longer than it needed to, but if Mademoiselle Marchand is trying to create a noisy endurance test, this would fit the bill nicely.

Finally, we close it down with "And if I Die please Don't Cry, It's Just the Moon," which they describe as "drone-noisy but still noisy." This track weighs in at just over 30 minutes and begins with peaceful shimmering drone. This is the auditory equivalent of watching a sunset over a lake. The sky is shifting in gradient from blue to a mix of dark pastels as the rays from the sun reflect over the rippling water. As with the sunset, the mood shifts as the sun goes down and the visibility changes over time. It gets a bit darker, and you start to become aware that you can't see as well as you could in the middle of the day. You also become aware of the eyes peering out at you from the forest behind you. But I don't really see this as noisy. A bit gritty, perhaps, but still pleasant. In fact, it isn't until about 3 minutes from the end that it gets a bit heavier with a jagged edge to the drone. Overall, this is calm, peaceful drone that works well as background music. Nicely done, and for me the best track on the disc.

One can think of this as a set of three experiments, and sometimes experiments work and sometimes you need to fine tune the hypothesis in light of new evidence. I appreciate what Mademoiselle Marchand is doing here, and I have also been guilty of tracks that go on a bit (OK, in my case, a lot) longer than they need to, which is where I find the main weakness of this album. The first and second tracks are interesting sound profiles, but they each make their point rather quickly. Ironically, the longest track is the one that I found to have the most variety, albeit the shifts are subtle. But if you enjoy hearing an artist really try to flesh out an experiment, this is worth checking out. This album weighs in at around 76 minutes.