Yanis Sahraoui, a.k.a. Sliimy, goes against your expectations at every turn, starting with the extra ‘i’.  The first signing to Perezcious Music, Perez Hilton’s new imprint at Warner Bros., is not some young up-and-coming diva in the likes of Katy Perry or Britney Spears (though he’s opened for both, and his version of Spears’ "Womanizer" was what first got him attention), but a guy from France.  And what does this Frenchman put out?  Why, a record of semi-electro dance-pop that sounds like it was sung by a black English girl back in the eighties...

Right from the first words of opener/single "Wake Up", Sliimy’s Paint Your Face has the feel of a post-two/tone record from the U.K: dance hall, some electro-beats, but more weight beneath it than your usual dance number - and Sliimy’s voice, all in English, really does sound like a girl’s.  But it’s a good female voice, evoking the south London frontladies of the mid-eighties, post-Specials British music scene.  The dance-bop is undeniably catchy, but Sliimy does mix it up somewhat, whether with indie-rock guitar chorus on the following "Magic Game", or higher melody with the subsequent "Our Generation".

Sliimy also doesn’t play it too sweet or charming (though he can charm, like with "Trust Me"), and even introduces his sadder side with the more carrying "Baby" and "Mum".  That side isn’t as good as Sliimy’s dance-bop, but it does help vary up Pain, which might otherwise have been filled with nice-but-forgettable tracks like the title number.  The sadness & electro-catch are well matched in "Waiting For", but from there he gets a little too diva-y to close things out.  However, the restrained "Tic Tac", the blues-rhythm guitar of "My God", and the sad diva closer "See U Again" nicely vary between each other, considering that they go one-two-three at the end.

There’s one more way Sliimy goes against what you’d expect: instead of a regular U.S. release, Paint Your Face is being put out digitally.  Nothing new about that, you might say, but he’s also releasing a limited edition t-shirt to go with it - most recently seen being sported by Perez himself on his ‘Perez Hilton Presents’ tour (QRO photos).  But just because this French hit isn’t what you expected, doesn’t mean he’s not good.

MP3 Stream: "Wake Up"