Halfway through Clare & the Reasons' set, as they prepare to play a song called Better Without You, baby-voiced New Yorker Clare Muldaur Manchon suggests the audience offer examples of "classic London insults". There are a few shouts of "wanker!" and a sole "cocklepicker!" and Better Without You kicks off with Manchon still giggling. It is a seemingly spontaneous, feel-good moment that only loses its shimmer when you realise she probably says this at every show. But artful whimsy is Manchon's stock in trade - she devises an entire gig out of giggling and tweeting delicate songs about bumblebees and waitresses. For obvious reasons, she is an acquired taste.
The daughter of 1960s Greenwich Village folkie Geoff Muldaur, Manchon has a pedigree, but the apple has fallen a long way from the tree. She and the Reasons - whose violinist is her French husband, Olivier - proffer kookiness in the mould of Regina Spektor and Jane Siberry. It is the kind of thing some find enchanting, but sends others ga-ga. From their matching red outfits, to the flashing head-lamps worn to represent a starry sky during the French-language Pluton, to Clare's angelic twitter, the Reasons veer close to adorableness overload. Never more so than when they dabble in politics, with Manchon dreamily repeating "Obama" to the tune of Over the Rainbow.
But there are redeeming qualities. A Dita Von Teese lookalike with the added benefit of height, Manchon is magnificent to look at, and even, in moderate doses, to listen to. Violins and acoustic guitar are played with cut-glass precision, and when the band sing harmonies they sound like the cartoon Chipmunks - and that, oddly, goes a long way toward restoring the listener's good humour.
· At the End of the Road festival, Dorset, tomorrow. endoftheroadfestival.com
