This double disc is a real gift to all lovers of the French chanson. Popular singer and film actor Patrick Bruel selected and performed 20 odd classic songs from the period between the two World Wars -- hence the title of the album, Entre Deux (Between Two). Bruel and his arrangers managed to be both respectful to their source material and to come up with a new interpretation of it. Some numbers were sung in duet with such French luminaries as Charles Aznavour, Laurent Voulzy, Johnny Hallyday, Jean-Jacques Goldman, and Alain Souchon. The album opens with "Mon Amant de Saint-Jean," reportedly the singer's personal favorite, followed by "Ménilmontant," a touching duet with Charles Aznavour, himself a living legend of the French chanson. "Ou Sont Mes Amants?," where Bruel is accompanied by film actresses Emmanuelle Béart and Sandrine Kiberlain, also works surprisingly well. The deliciously melancholic "Je Suis Dans la Dèche" (I'm Broke), performed solo by Bruel, captures so well the essence of the French musical tradition. The album's other highlight is "À Paris, Dans Chaque Faubourg," sung in duet with 84-year-old Danielle Darrieux, a movie star of that period. The collection closes with "À Contretemps," the only new song written for the album by M.F. Gros, David Moreau, and Bruel himself, that serves as the perfect homage to the spirit of the chanson, that peculiarly French musical genre.

The title notwithstanding, this debut from the former Faithless singer is pretty angelic-sounding stuff. You're bound to think of Sin�ad O'Connor, but the comparison is as misleading as it is inevitable. Granted, Dido's ethereal vocals here frequently recall O'Connor; but Dido's...