Kate Ryan

Scream for More appeared in 2001, ahead of the debut album Different in 2002. The first record also contained Ryan’s versions of Mylène Farmer’s Désenchantée and Libertine. Those songs established a particularly effective balance between a strong existing melody and a direct electronic arrangement.

Désenchantée works because the vocal has enough shape to guide the rise of the track. The beat is predictable in the useful dance-floor sense, while the melody provides the emotional movement. Ryan sounds comfortable carrying a long phrase over a production which rarely stops to make room for one.

Voyage, Voyage, originally recorded by Desireless, became another of her dance-pop interpretations in 2007. France Gall’s Ella, elle l’a followed in 2008. They are different songs with different original personalities, and Ryan’s versions make most sense when heard as performances with their own rhythmic purpose.

The 2008 album Free places that approach alongside songs such as I Surrender. Hearing the original material next to the reinterpretations helps separate the voice from the recognition supplied by a familiar title. Her smooth phrasing and the lift into a chorus are consistent features of both.

There is little mystery about why these records travelled across language boundaries. A listener can follow the tune before understanding every word, and the arrangement makes its intentions clear from the opening bars. Ryan’s particular contribution is to hold that melodic line steadily while everything underneath it encourages movement.