**1/2

PARIS COMBO

(Tinder)

The bio for Paris Combo places the quintet's songs alongside those of Dominique A, one of the most imaginative urban folk-rockers of this decade. In fact, Paris Combo's sexy acoustic bistro jazz sounds nothing like the Serge-Gainsbourg-meets-Suzanne-Vega atmospheric songs of Dominique A. Instead, their mix of Gypsy rhythms, repartee, and muted saxophone solos looks back to Django Reinhardt and Josephine Baker, with all the polish and edge that made Paris club music of that era feel so harshly streetwise. They also, thanks to Belle du Berry's recitatives in razzmatazz like "Moi, mon âme et ma conscience," the sultry and Spanish "Irenée," and the funky "Le roi de la forêt," recall the 1980s club pop of Les Rita Mitsouko. Except that where Les Rita's chanteuse, Catherine Ringer, put her nasty-girl persona unmistakably in your face, du Berry hovers between sultry and dismissive, keeping you guessing -- and making you like it.

-- Michael Freedberg