Still Night, Still Light

Brooklyn three-piece Au Revoir Simone are a curious prospect. For starters, it's not often you get to gaze at a stage boasting three ladies, three keyboards and little else. No guitars here, nor drum kits, cellos or trumpets.

When it comes to decorum, Brooklyn's Au Revoir Simone makes Judith Martin look like Don Rickles. They have three voices, three keyboards, and a drum machine in their arsenal, yet each element stands out from the gleaming propulsion with razored precision, as if the band were constantl y saying, "No, after you." They deliver inspirational-kitten-calendar platitudes that would make Whitney Houston blush with disarming directness, their plain yet dulcet voices arranged in fussy group harmony-- excessive melisma being, after all, simply immodest. The band's egalitarian and mutually supportive dynamic pays off on the harmonious Still Night, Still Light, their third and best album. It's feather-light electro-pop that's not to be taken lightly.