Monthly Archives: December 2012

Year lists (2)

All FillesSourires-contributors (me, FransS, Sky and Maks, see below) are posting their year lists in the upcoming days. Plus, we asked several regular guestposters and FS-fans to send in their lists too. List-o-mania, baby!

1. Marie Pierre Arthur – Aux Alentours.
MPA isn’t the antithesis to Coeur de Pirate (my #1 of 2011), but there are obvious differences. Less tattoos, more guitar than piano-driven and in lyrics and feel slightly older, more mature. Aux Alentours is MPA’s sophomore offering, with hard-hitting hits (Si tu savais) and almost esotheric ballads (A Partir de maintenant). It’s the French(-Canadian) album I played the most in the past months, the one that kept on giving, the one that left a mark.

2. Fanny Bloom – Apprentie Guerrière.
‘Lio-esque’ is the penultimate compliment on this blog (the biggest is of course ‘Gainsbourgian’). On Parfait Parfait, Fanny’s almost out-Lio’ing Wanda de Vasconcelos, and that’s REALLY saying something. Yes, I do miss La Patère Rose, but this plaster covers that wound quite nicely. Merci Fanny.

3. Céline Mastrorelli – Elle Était Une Fois.
Speaking of Gainsbourgian, listening to Céline’s duet with Joseph d’Anvers (T’oublies or not t’oublies) is like ASMR to me. Goosebumps, hair-raising, butterflies in the belly, everthing. And that’s just one song on this album that is as beautiful as Céline herself.

4. Françoise Hardy – L’amour fou.
Haven’t read the novel that came with this album (waiting for the English translation) but if it is as good as this album, it’s quite a read. Françoise ages with grace, dignity and songwriters who provide songs that fit her like stylish black leather gloves. See Pourquoi Vous? here.

5. Melody’s Echo Chamber – s/t.
This is cheating a little, because there are more English than French tunes on this debut. But hey, she’s called Melody! She is French! And she sings really, really husky! And I simply ADORE this kind of shoegaze with electronica with Gainsbourgian touches.

Bubbling under: Francoiz Breut, Emily Loizeau, Barbara Carlotti, Liza Manili, Olivia Ruiz and Mademoiselle Nineteen.

Merci for yet another hoarse voices-filled year. Keep it up!
Guuzbourg

Year lists (1)

  • Posted on 11/12/2012
  • /Under Musique

Fanny Bloom1. Fanny Bloom – Apprentie Guerrière
With this superb debut solo-album, Fanny Grosjean left the sometimes somewhat naïve songs of La Patère Rose far behind. Apprentie Guerrière is mature and diverse and never fails. Bloom shows with this album that she grew in all facets of her writing and luckily still has her delightful, hoarse voice on top of it.
Listen to ‘Mon Hiver‘ and feel everything a song needs. In only 1:40 minutes that is, simply brilliant.

2. Françoiz Breut – La Chirurgie Des Sentiments
Never a dull moment with Françoiz. With ‘La Chirurgie Des Sentiments’ she managed to surprise again within her very own and very special universe. And wherever she will take you in that weird universe, being with Françoiz somehow never feels uncomfortable. In contrary.

3. Celine Mastrorelli – Elle Était Une Fois
It took beauty of the year Celine Mastrorelli quite a while to come up with a full album. But it was worth the wait. Celine does it the way we like it most at FS. Check ‘Lost in Paris’ and you’ll understand why.

4. Mélanie Pain – Bye Bye Manchester
Too bad she did only half of the tracks on this album in French. In spite of that she easily made it into this years top 5 with her ukulele and Casio. Original songs, seductive singing, all the ingredients we already know from Nouvelle Vague, but she can do it on her own very well.

5. Mademoiselle Nineteen – idem
Fresh, quirky, contemporary and poppy, exactly what you might expect with a name like ‘Mademoiselle Nineteen’. Nevertheless reminiscents of earlier days (Lio! France Gall!) are never far away and in this case that’s a good thing. The Lolita-esque Belgian singer recorded the most cheerful album of the year without getting obligatory.

Wishing you all the best for the next year!
Maks

Brigitte covers Gainsbourg

  • Posted on 03/12/2012
  • /Under Musique

Kooky pop duo Brigitte (Aurelie & Sylvie) released an extended version of their quirky debut, Et Vous Tu M’Aimes?. It features a bonus disc with leftovers and covers, songs by RUN DMC (Walk this way), George Michael (I Want Your Sex) and yes, our beloved Serge. Brigitte’s take on Chez les Ye-Ye is danceable, well-arranged and one of the better cover versions, I’d say.

Brigitte – Chez les ye-ye (video of Serge’s original here)

Send Us Your Year List!

Marie-Pierre Arthur? Françoiz Breut? Fanny Bloom? Pauline Croze? Amylie? Berry? How ’bout Benjamin Biolay, Matthieu Boogaerts, Cali, Johnny Hallyday, BB Brunes? Just WHO made the bestest French album of the year? And WHY?
FransS, Sky, Maks and me are making a list, we’re checking it twice. But you, dear FS-fan, you can add your list of faves as well. Albums, songs, singers, there are no rules. Make a proper year list, add a little comment to every entry, and send in the result to guuzbourg (a) gmail (dot) com, before December 10. More = merry and bright.

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