Nearly six weeks since Tender Forever’s latest album was released, it’s still in heavy rotation among my music collection. I think that’s because No Snare (out on K Recs back in June, and French native Melanie Valera’s third full-length as Tender Forever), is a smart break-up album that turns the idea of a torch song on its head.There are two tracks that stand out every time I hear the record. The first is “Only the Sounds You Made,” a triumphant song about the benefits of breaking up. The lyrics are a serious Eff You to Valera’s ex–“I’ve been loving/ someone with something you don’t have/ I can’t love someone who is sad”–but the instrumentals still evoke the sounds of heartbreak. The music rises at the chorus with staccato violin notes; the violins slow to melancholy rhythms at the verse and bridge. That juxtaposition drives home the song’s emotional punch.The second memorable track is “Like the Snare That’s Gone.” It’s got a similar theme to “Only the Sounds You Made,” but it’s faster and darker, with beats kept by a drum machine and snapping fingers. There’s a poetry and internal rhythm in the lyrics, as if the lines have meter. At only two-and-a-half minutes long, “Like the Snare That’s Gone” is like musical germ warfare: it’s an explosion of infectious pop and pulse.I’d never heard Tender Forever before No Snare, but the album is being promoted as a departure from Valera’s previous, more dance-directed albums. Maybe I’d have a different opinion if I were a long-time fan; for now, I’m buying whatever Valera (now a Portland resident) is selling. No Snare is tough but emotionally powerful record and easily one of my favorites of 2010 so far.