Articles Written By: guuzbourg
Like Bashung
Tels Alain Bashung is a just-released tribute to the great French rocker, who passed away in 2009. He left a discography that, for the non-French listener, has as much turn-ons as turn-offs. He wasn’t a fantastic singer, technically. He had, as Sky said already in the post below, a tendency for pumped up stadium-rock and yes, he was obsessed by Dylan. Yet, albums like Play Blessures, Fantaisie Militaire and Osez Joséphine are still very listenable, and songs like La nuit je mens or Madame rêve lost nothing of their emotional value. Plus, he played in a few very good videos (like Volutes). On Tels Alain Bashung, FS-faves like Keren Ann, Vanessa Paradis, M, Dionysos and Benjamin Biolay make his songs their own. No stinkers here (ok, well, Christophe maybe channels some bad stadiumrock-vibes). On the dvd that accompanies the cd, almost all artists tell melancholic stories about Bashung, his songs and their memories. Oddly, rock-trio Mustang is also featured, yet they’re not the album. Shame. Their approach to rock ‘n roll is very much in the vein of another of Bashungs heroes, Gene Vincent.
Keren Ann – Je fume pur oublier que tu bois
Alain Bashung – Je fume pour oublier que tu bois
Note from Sky’s editorial desk: I beg to differ, Guuz — Christophe’s cover of Bashung’s Alcaline has class and haute tension.
Christophe – Alcaline
Alain Bashung – Alcaline.mp3
Austine
‘Austine is a the nicest blonde hair french girl you’ll ever meet. She’s your dream sister, lover, mother, wife and niece. After her debut album “Ouh la la la” – and after some of her tracks got picked for the Gossip Girl tv show -, she’s out with a brand new album called “Le Calendrier”. She sings en français about l’amour in colors on 12 songs (one for every month) and you’ll want to laugh, scream, cry, twist and shout with her.’ (Source)
Austine – Coup de foudre
Eva de Roovere
Eva de Roovere worked with an impressive guestlist on her new album, Mijn huis (My house). Impressive if you’re Dutch, that is. Spinvis plays, wrote arrangements and a song, Thé Lau duets and Piet ‘Ozark Henry‘ Goddaer also contributed a song. Superproducer Reyn Ouwehand was at the controls. The reason she pops up on this blog is not only her delicate voice, but the fact that she sings two songs in French. By the way, this isn’t the first time this charming fille pops up on FS; she sang a song referring to Serge’s Je suis venu te dire and translated a track by FS-fave Shivaree. This time, she translated a song by Stephan Eicher (to Dutch) and sings a song written by Seb Duthoit (with whom she duetted earlier) and a track written by Kit Hain and Francois Welgryn. The latter, Chocolat, is honey to my ears. It’s an ode to various types of chocolate: ‘Un désir que je n’contrôle pas’. I’m pretty sure there’s no double entrendre here – though one never knows. When you hear Eva sing ‘Gelukkige verjaardag’ (Happy birthday) on the Will Tura-tribute, you can imagine how JFK must’ve felt when Marilyn sang her song to him.
Eva de Roovere – Chocolat
Seb Duthoit & Eva de Roovere – Jouer le jeu
Eva de Roovere – Gelukkige verjaardag
GRAM
Alas, GRAM (aka Marg van Eenbergen, former singer of this band) doesn’t sing in French. But the intro-tape to her live-shows features ’69 Année Erotique’ by Serge & Jane. Her new single is very much inspired by ‘my female French collegues’, she said. I’m thinking Mareva Galanter, France Gall and Jeanne Cherhal. That single, the summer-anthem Play Me, is a free download on her site (where it says ‘downlaod hier de single’). Higly recommended! See a live version here.
Juliette Katz
She looks and sounds so much like Adele, you can understand why there’s a big buzz around Juliette Katz. This article says she’s de coup de coeur of singer Alain Souchon, that she signed with a good record label and that Sia is a guest on her album. Parts of which were recorded in New York, with producer Scott Jacoby. Albin de la Simone lend a hand, so did Bardi Johannsson. If you google her, you get this acoustic session, this coverversion and this interview (for a series of talks with ’round’ girls). First single Tout le monde sounds promising – nice groove, not too poppy, touches of Fender Rhodes piano and some Hammond. Looking forward to that album. This could be big. Photo by Steph Dray, stolen from here.
Juliette Katz – Tout le monde
Brigitte
Brigitte – great name for a female French duo. Just like Serge is a great name for a music magazine. The blonde and the brunette, Aurelie (or should we say Mayane?) and Sylvie, first popped up on this blog in 2009. A few posts below, Misterblog is saying that the irresistable Battez-vous is getting more and more airplay in France. Summer-hit? You guessed it. The first full album is out now, it’s called Et vous, tu m’aimes? That kicks off with Battez-vous, and includes their rework of NTM’s hiphophit Ma Benz (fabulous Brigitte-video here). There are several interludes, ‘hidden tracks’, a song consisting of titles of Claude François-chansons (very funny) and an ‘English song’ to end all English songs by French artists. Battez-vous is by far the best track on the album, but the groove of Oh La La got me hooked as well.
Brigitte – Oh La La
Vive le printemps (2)
And then the full album by actress Melanie Laurent rattles your mailbox. The girlfriend of Damien Rice (first featured here) sang on some soundtracks. The acoustic music (lots of guitars, piano and strings) and her voice reminds me of Berry. Which is nice. There are two duets with Rice on the album (he sings in English on both, she on one), every song has a little je ne sais quoi, a melody, a vocal thingy, that makes them more interesting the more you listen to ‘m. Yearlist-stuff, people. Several songs can serve as summer-hits. Je connais, for instance. Or the more uptempo, soulful Kiss.
Vive le printemps
Spring is about to start, a good moment to round up a few candidates for the French Summer Hit badge. Last year, we had Ben L’Oncle Soul, ZAZ and Camelia Jordana. Artists who released albums around this time, so there. So far, I haven’t heard a song by a fille that has ‘summer hit’ written all over, but these hits are hard to predict. Here’s a top 5 of male candidates:
Roberdam – A Tes Avances. Roberdam is the nom de plume of Damien Robert, the former singer of Rapid’vour’voir. Not a big name in France, but Roberdam has potential. His album is very radiofriendly and comes with a series of videos about a scruffy circus. A tes avances from the album is my favourite. See more here.
Roberdam – A tes avances
Sam – T’es gentille. Fierce remix of a single that was released last year. Sam‘s first version has a charming video with charming girls here.
Sam – T’es gentille (remix)
Antoine Leonpaul – Oh Claire. Another new kid on the block, Antoine Leonpaul (‘Three firstnames for the price of one!’) is on par with heroes like Alain Chamfort. This was his first single.
Antoine Leonpaul – Oh Claire
Padam – Nadine. Great band, obviously named after an Edith Piaf song. Padam made four albums already, they toured all over the world. Really digging this afro-influenced track.
Padam – Nadine
Ben Ricour – Dans le futur. Ben Ricour is making albums under his own name since 2001. Dans le futur reeks of summer thanks to the trumpets. Unofficial, yet cool video here.
Ben Ricour – Dans le futur