Review
Genre and Mood
Cléa Vincent takes on All that she wants, the Ace of Base hit, and turns it into a homespun cover of breezy French synth-pop. It is playful and dreamy, steeped in nostalgia for early-nineties radio but delivered with an indie, bedroom-pop lightness that makes it feel brand new.
Song Summary
The original, written by Jonas Berggren and Ulf Ekberg of Ace of Base, is a dark little pop song about a restless woman who wants another baby, whatever that word means, set to a reggae-pop shuffle that conquered charts worldwide. Vincent keeps the famous melody but softens its strut, replacing the glossy production with warm, slightly lo-fi keyboards, a relaxed beat and her own airy voice; she has said she approached it more like a hip-hop or R&B song than nineties reggae-pop from Sweden. The memorable detail is the charm of the handmade: it sounds like a song recorded in an apartment on a lazy Sunday, and, as it happens, Midnight Special’s studio is in an apartment.
Musical Breakdown
The cover follows the original’s shape but trades punch for haze.
Intro
Soft synth chords and a gentle drum-machine pattern establish a sunny, slightly woozy groove.
Verse 1
Vincent’s voice enters light and nonchalant, singing the familiar lines with a wink rather than a sneer.
Chorus
The well-known hook arrives in a gentle wash of keys, instantly recognisable yet dreamier and more intimate than the original.
Bridge
A short instrumental passage lets the synths drift, adding a little French-pop melancholy to the mix.
Climax
The last choruses layer vocals and keyboards for a warm, swaying finale.
Outro
The groove fades softly, leaving a lingering hum of synths and the urge to put the original on next.
Concepts in Focus
All That She Wants is a cover version in the transforming sense. Vincent keeps Berggren and Ekberg’s melody and words and changes almost everything else: the production, the tempo feel and the attitude. A faithful cover shows respect; a transforming one shows what the interpreter hears in a song. Here she hears a sweetness that the original’s cool, sinister polish hid.
The main thing she changes is the groove. Ace of Base built the song on a reggae-inflected pop shuffle, tight and bouncing. Vincent told Bandcamp Daily she made it closer to hip-hop and R&B, which means a looser, laid-back beat that sits behind the voice rather than pushing it. Listen to how the same melody feels slower and more private on that bed.
What survives is the hook. Vincent said she loves the song’s musical hooks, and the chorus melody is recognisable after two notes even in its new clothes. That is the test of a great pop hook: it does not depend on its original production. Compare the way AnnenMayKantereit and Parcels strip back a Kylie Minogue hit in AnnenMayKantereit x Parcels – Can’t Get You Out of My Head (Cover).
Artistic Context
Cléa Vincent, born in Paris in 1985, trained on piano at a classical conservatory and then at the Paris jazz school Arpej, and built her following at open-mic nights. A first album for Polydor, Happée Coulée, was shelved; she later called its recordings cold and sterile. She found a home at Midnight Special Records, the Paris independent run by Victor Peynichou, whose small studio is in an apartment. There she re-recorded songs from the shelved album, added covers and remixes, and released the results as two EPs in 2014: Non mais oui on 10 March, with this Ace of Base cover, and Non mais oui 2 in October. The covers also include Seul sous la lune by Daniel Darc, sung as a duet with Baptiste W. Hamon. Her influences span Ariel Pink and Mac DeMarco, French new wave, early-nineties Europop and the yé-yé era.
Impact and Reception
The Non mais oui EPs launched Vincent’s career: the video for her single Château perdu became a YouTube success that M6 then broadcast, and her first album, Retiens mon désir, followed in 2016 to good reviews and a tour of France and Europe. Bandcamp Daily heard in the re-recordings a warm, organic lo-fi pop that the shelved versions lacked, and this cover is the clearest example: a pure Euro-pop hit from her teenage years remade as something tender. It is here because it shows a great cover can reveal the sweetness inside a familiar hit. Put it on and sing along softly.
