It will be some time (weeks? months? 2009?) before French singer-songwriter Soko makes waves here in the States, but her limited output to date shows a fair amount of promise for an unsigned artist. So far she has captured the attention of a foreign press eager to crown the next LillyAllenKateNash, all thanks to her bitter break-up ballad, “I’ll Kill Her.”

MP3:
Soko - I’ll Kill Her

Woah, it’s like reading someone’s livejournal!
Someone in France!

The charm of the song lies in Soko’s vulnerability and self-deprecating comments (“I would have met your friends, we would have had a drink or two/They would have liked me, ‘cause sometimes I’m funny”), although that charm can’t mask how creepy—in that break-into-your-apartment-and-boil-your-pet-rabbit way—the song really is.

And while the lyrics of “I’ll Kill Her” have the same desperate cry for blood as Shellac’s “Prayer to God,” Soko isn’t asking for the Lord’s help (she is French after all, so let’s assume that she, unlike Albini, is completely godless when it comes to her vengeance). Of course one wonders why Soko wants to kill the “bleach-blonde girl” when it was the guy who never took her to the cinema, called her back, and denied her the “beautiful babies” she sings so longingly about? Why not “I’ll Kill Him”? Is she holding that song back to make it her follow-up single (ala “Soulja Boy” and “Soulja Girl”)?

Photo by Melanie Elbaz