New Soko video

See the video Spike Jonze made for Soko’s  I thought I was an alien HERE, also read the Q&A with her.

Coeur de Pirate playing Golden Baby

A track from the upcoming album, live in the studio:

In other news: Beatrice/CdP’s singing a track (along with Carla Bruni, Emilie Simon, Olivia Ruiz and Jamie Cullum) on the Christmas-album by Michel Legrand. See full tracklist here

Camille on Later With Jools Holland

I must admit, I’m warming up to Camille’s new album. She played 3 songs on the wonderful Later with Jools Holland show (one, two), Wet Boy is both strange and beautiful:

Lulu Gainsbourg

New official video: “L’eau à la bouche”

 

Listen to a snippet of Vanessa Paradis & Johnny Depp singing ‘Melody Nelson’ on Lulu’s upcoming album HERE

NN+

It is always good news when old friends have a new album released.  Especially when it is a brand new album from the legendary Filles Sourires Sweethearts Nous Non Plus. Jean-Luc Retard and (in particular) Céline Dijon  are on our radar since the beginning of this blog as can be seen here. And their first album even made the list 0f best albums of the decade by official FS-contributor Sky.
After that debut album came a second one in 2009 and now there is a new album called “Freudian Slip”. And it doesn’t disappoint. Céline Dijon is as sultry as ever and the sixties yéyé influence is still there as is the eighties electronic organ. The title song sounds like a rediscovered Serge track, “J’en ai marre” strongly reminds me of French eighties new wave. Unfortunately there are  only eight tracks on the album.
First single is a “tribute” to Italian President Silvio B. called “Bunga Bunga”. It goes with a lovely video that can be seen here.
 But for today I choose for what could very well be the last summer song of the season, the lovely “Yé-Yé C’est l’Été”.

Nous Non Plus – Yé-Yé C’est l’Été / Summer Song

Dirty Beaches vs Françoise Hardy

Françoise Hardy’s piano in Voilà, combined with eerie, dark rockabilly. Now there’s a treat. The guy responsible for the mix is Alex Zhang Hungtai (aka Dirty Beaches), a Taiwan-born Canadian immigrant who spent a good chunk of his life feeling unmoored and adrift. He loves David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, Wong Kar Wai and the music of Johnny Cash and The Stooges (he covered them both). Dirty Beaches’ album was released in March, but Jan Kooi told me about Lord Knows Best, with the Hardy-sample. This video merges images of Hardy and Hungtai. In the same vein was the use of Chantal Goya in a track by Wild Nothing.

Dirty Beaches – Lord knows best
Françoise Hardy – Voilà

Alex Beaupain & Camelia Jordana

We know Alex from his brilliant filmscores, but he makes albums under his own name too. I missed this duet, an update of an older song, from Beaupain’s Pourqoui battait mon coeur-cd when it came out in April. But now it’s released as a single, with a nice video (shot by Christophe Honoré) featuring gorgeous Camelia. Not for a second you feel awkward that she’s 19 and he’s 37, this is totally believable. See an acoustic version HERE

Alex Beaupain & Camelia Jordana – Avant la haîne

Aurelie Cabrel, Bertrand Betsch

Yes, Aurelie Cabrel is the 25-year old daughter of Francis Cabrel. One of France’s highly acclaimed singer-songwriters, it’s not easy to follow his footsteps. Then again, lots of sons and daughters of famous French musicians started their own career – Thomas Dutronc, Arthur H(igelin), Charlotte Gainsbourg and M(athieu Chedid) all are very succesful. Aurelie will need a bit more time and experience to get to the level of Thomas and the like. Her voice is pretty, girly and very fragile. Her (rock)songs are very French, they remind me of Mademoiselle K and Jeanne Cherhal. The overall feeling of this album is that she’s talented, but not quite there yet. You have to start somewhere, she can be proud of her first effort. We’ll keep listening to what happens next.

Aurelie Cabrel – Un rien

Bertrand Betsch gave Nathalie Guilmot again a prominent role on his new album. As we remember from La chaleur humaine, Guilmot has a pretty, husky voice that sounds great next to Bretsch’s more gruffy pipes. The new Bretsch-album is pleasant, acoustics mix with electronics, but lacks real bite. Too few songs creep under your skin.

Bertrand Betsch & Nathalie Guilmot – Pour une chance