The UK general election was called on Tuesday and we’ll soon be trundling off to the polling booths to decide how many of our current suits we want to swap for new ones.

Now, this song choice is not supposed to indicate in any way my political preference (not much), suffice to say that it feels quite pertinent.

Ok, so the comparisons break down on closer inspection, it feels a bit harsh to bring his mother into it, but we’ll find out on the first Thursday in May if this is broadly how the nation feels about our Great Leader Gordon Brown.

Il Faut Que Tu T’en Ailles (You really have to go) is the opening song on the 2005 album Inoxydable. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of Quebec’s Marie Mai – I’m not aware of any female artists in the UK producing this quality of pop rock.

I can’t tell you how much this guy reminds me of myself about twenty years ago. He’s even using the same Gibson guitar I was grinding at the time and would’ve used to record almost exactly that video had YouTube been around in 1989. Thankfully it was not.

The song he is attacking is the song I’m going to translate today.

Marie Mai first gained fame as one of the finalists of Star Académie, a Québécois version of those shows such as X-Factor, Pop Idol, etc… that we have all come to know and . A talented singer who would be unlikely to make the cut on an English version as we seem to prefer to pick people that we can use for headline-fodder rather than finding real singers.

Marie-Mai’s latest album, Version 3.0 (a gag first pulled by Garbage in 1998 with their second album Version 2.0) was released at the end of September. I downloaded it from Amazon today and listened to it for the first time.

Her style is very much in the same arena as that of Avril Lavigne and although I’m not sure if I should admit it, I have to say that I do kind of enjoy this sort of rocky pop when it’s done well. Albeit in small doses.

The 2007 album Dangereuse Attraction opened with a very strong track called Mentir. As you may already know I keep a play list of songs to help me make it through my gym sessions and Mentir is a song that has been in that list for a while.

Version 3.0 does not start as well as Dangereuse Attraction, although the first two tracks are still pretty good. However track three C’est Moi descends into a realm of pop music with which I’m not really very comfortable – Cher-style voice screwery and other electro-effects – nothing horrific but enough to turn me off. Track four Garde Tes Larmes “Keep your tears” starts off in much the same vein although quickly improves with a chorus that is amongst the best on the album.

Next up is what I consider to be the strongest song on the album Secrets. It then all cruises along until Plaisirs Amers where we once again have to listen to voice-fiddling but this is balanced out with hints of some heavier guitar riffs which come excitingly close to leaning towards the metal that I often go into dark corners to listen to.

Rebâtir Notre Histoire is probably the weakest song. It starts pretty badly then tries to improve but then gives up.

The album finishes with the English language song Do You – half rock, half dance – decent enough but essentially just more of the same. This is, for me, the biggest problem with the album. Although perfectly solid with a very fine singer and some decent tracks, everything’s a little samey whereas I felt that Dangereuse Attraction had far more variety and interest.