Filles Sourires

Lisbonne

guuzbourg — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:57:12 +0000

Lisbonne is Marie Merlet, bassplayer for Monade (Laetitia Sadier’s band). The name is a reference to The Virgin Suicides, not to the capital of Portugal. Her supersweet tweepop debut-single features an Annie Philippe-cover, a duet with Sadier. Read an interview with Marie here.

Le Couleur

guuzbourg — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:26:24 +0000

Listen to the new Le Couleur single (and EP) here!

Marilou video

guuzbourg — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:10:47 +0000

The Blithe Spirit of Charles Trenet

Sky — Sat, 18 May 2013 18:32:39 +0000

»Without him, we all would have become accounting clerks«, Jacques Brel once said about Charles Trenet, the godfather of French song who invented modern chanson with his stunning blend of surrealism, nostalgia, buoyancy and joie de vivre. Born exactly 100 years ago, on May 18, 1913, the so-called Fou chantant first pursued a career as a writer: In his early novel Dodo Manières his alter ego feels downright enchanted while listening to Louis Armstrong’s Hobo You Can’t Ride This Train, and jazz was what made him turn to song. Portrayed by Jean Cocteau as an angel on a famous poster, Trenet wrote about 850 songs, among them superb stuff like Je chante, J’ai ta main, Y’a d’la joie, Que reste-t-il des nos amours, Douce France, La route enchantée, of course La mer, and the magnificent L’âme des poètes, a simple, soft-spoken discourse about poets, poetry and immortality.

Charles Trenet – L’âme des poètes

Françoise Hardy

guuzbourg — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:05:20 +0000

‘Françoise was a confirmed Anglophile who had wanted to record in Britain, with British arrangers, as soon as she became famous’, Bob Stanley writes in the liner notes of ‘Midnight Blues’, a compilation of Hardy’s finest English songs, recorded between 1968 and 1972. I’m not a real fan of Fran’s English songs. It’s the accent, it’s the fact that the translated songs were better in their original form. I like her better in Italian (Spotify-link), but, granted, there are some nice tunes. As is always the case with Ace, the liner-notes are fine, it sounds great and the photos are carefully chosen. One of the things St.Etienne’s Bob Stanley can’t stop fussing about, is how thin and beautiful Hardy was back in the day. ‘In England, it was certainly my physique which pleasured people’, Hardy is quoted. Producer Tony Cox, who tried to set up a collaboration between Nick Drake and Hardy (it didn’t work) says: ‘We’d go out for dinner and every head would turn.’ A part from All Over the World, no single or English album was a bona fide hit in Britain. But she did work with several interesting arrangers and musicians, like Fairport Convention’s Richard Thompson and members of folkband Fatheringay. Here’s two tracks from the compilation:

Françoise Hardy – Midnight Blues
Françoise Hardy – Let My Name Be Sorrow

New Pendentif video

guuzbourg — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:54:10 +0000

Spotify

guuzbourg — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:39:15 +0000

Just a reminder, if you have Spotify you can listen to my New French Pop 2013 playlist. New songs added almost every week. Go HERE

Manouche Willie

Sky — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:57:02 +0000

»Django’s Orchid Lounge [on Maui] is my little hideout on the ocean«, country superstar Willie Nelson writes in his 2012 memoir Roll Me Up and Smoke Me If I Die. »My brother-in-law named it Django’s Orchid Lounge since he knows how much I love Django Reinhardt. For those who don’t know, Django Reinhardt is the greatest guitar player who ever lived.« Introduced to the sound of Django by guitar teacher Paul Buskirk in 1955, Willie pays tribute to his guitar hero on his brand new album Let’s Face the Music and Dance with a fine, inspired version of Reinhardt’s all-time classic Nuages. And last not least, Our Holy Lord of the Trademark Pigtails is celebrating his 80th birthday today – the Willie way, for sure. Congrats from the FS staff!

Willie Nelson – Nuages

Under the Radar (3): Jeff Lynne

Sky — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:03:31 +0000

Jeff Lynne’s latest album Long Wave is nearly about 28 min. It features eleven tunes that sound … well, a bit like he tried to pull a portable radio out of the dungheap in his well-groomed Beverly Hills garden. Conceived as an hommage to the songs that shaped his youth, the album hardly achieves more than beaming Golden Age classics, Chuck Berry and Roy Orbison into the realm of Lackluster Alley. The most memorable song might be its opener, a last call adaptation of The Aznavour’s lofty ’74 longing melodrama She a.k.a. Tous les visages de l’amour. And in comparison to Elvis Costello’s slime-from-Notting-Hill version, we’re certainly talking world class wavelength here.

Jeff Lynne – She
Charles Aznavour – She

Elodie Frégé

guuzbourg — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:46:51 +0000

Lyric video for Elodie’s new single