Articles Written By: guuzbourg

Yearlists (1)

The end is nigh, that’s why we like to round things up. The FS-editors and regular guestposters made up their minds about what they thought were the bestest French albums and/or songs of the year.

Here’s Guuzbourg’s list:

1. Pendentif – Mafia Douce.
It’s retro, yes. But the combination of ‘American beaches and British winds’ worked like a charm. I played this album to death, and I never got bored.


2. Vanessa Paradis – Love Songs.
Of all the Big Stars who released albums in 2013 (Benjamin Biolay, Elodie Frégé, Alizée, Axelle Red), Vanessa took the biscuit. Maybe not as solid as Divinidylle, but Tu vois c’que je vois, Prends garde a moi and even the duets with Biolay (who disappointed with his own album) are very, very good.


3. La Femme – Psycho Tropical Berlin
Twannggg! The debut album of this Parisian collective is a wild, weird and wonderful affair, ranging from an update of the surftastic Sur la planche to synthified Si un jour. It’s not a perfect album (too many songs), but the ideas, the sultry vocals and the energy make up for the flaws.


4. Forêt – Forêt.
What Steve said.


5. De La Jolie Musique – Plein Soleil.
One could think that French music is all about re-vamping old ideas – this top 5 is almost completely retrofied. So what, I say. I fell hard for this update of the exquisite, rich soundtrack music of J-C Vannier and Francois de Roubaix, with some John Barry touches.

Chantal Bellavance

  • Posted on 09/12/2013
  • /Under Musique

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Chantal Bellavance, yet another promising singer-songwriter emerges from Québec… And when the songs are tagged as “cutting crystalline pop” they have got to be worth a listen, n’est-ce pas?

It would appear that 27 year-old, classically trained, Chantal Bellavance – sometime budding actress, model, cash-strapped fashionista (or “fashionista sans budget” as she writes) – could quite easily add another string to her bow as a singer-songwriter, if her recently released four-track EP “J’attends” is anything to go by.

“J’attends” hits you with a blast of retro-80’s influenced synthesiser-pop – four vignettes of bitter-sweet slices of life, love, despondency and disillusionment – that are nigh on perfect. The EP is perfectly balanced; two up-tempo numbers “J’attends” and the down-right foot-tapping “Le matériau ne convient pas”, both neatly sandwiching and counterpoising the slower yet still poppy “Serial lover” and the subdued ballad “Qui”.

And then there is Chantal’s (and yes it has to be said) crystal-clear voice, which like the middle-eight of the title track rises and soars, none more so than on “Qui” – which is rapidly positioning itself as the standout track – with its sympathetic piano accompaniment and her laser-like vocals… cutting like a searchlight through the gloom.

There’s also a nice video to accompany “J’attends”… Chantal’s model deportment is put to good use in this one…

(This is a guestpost by Steve)(Obviously)

Jerome, Pendentif

  • Posted on 05/12/2013
  • /Under Musique

Lovely cover of Que vais-je en faire? by Pendentif. Original version by Jerome Echenoz, who re-released is album from 2012 with several remixes and reworks, like this one. Full album on Bandcamp.

Freschard

  • Posted on 05/12/2013
  • /Under Musique

Growing up on a farm in rural Burgundy, the lure of music was stronger than a life of agriculture for Clémence Freschard; at 12 she started putting on gigs in the barn. At 18 she moved to Paris where she worked in a café, meeting regular customer Andre Herman Dune, the sterling lo-fi pop genius who has worked with FS favourite Françoiz Breut. He wrote some songs for Freschard. She then decamped to New York, where she picked up an old electric guitar and started writing her own material. Now a long-time resident of Berlin, her fifth album, Boom Biddy Boom, is out on the ace UK label WIAIWYA (Where It’s At Is Where You Are) on lovely orange vinyl and from her Bandcamp in. let’s face it, marginally less lovely digital formats. The album’s sung in a great accented English, with slack guitars and sparse instrumentation. It’s lovely stuff in any language.

(Thanks Adrian for this guestpost)

De La Jolie Musique

  • Posted on 27/11/2013
  • /Under Musique

Now there’s a name to draw attention, De La Jolie Musique. Of the Beautiful Music. Lush orchestrated music that is, in the vein of Jean-Claude Vannier, Francois de Roubaix, Eumir Deodato, John Barry… Violins, brass, that plopping 70s Fender bass, choirs, wah-wah guitars – are things turning bright orange yet? The band’s key member is Erwann Corré, a songwriter, arranger and multi-instrumentalist who adds up to eleven people in De La Jolie Musique to make his musical dreams come true. Plein Soleil is the highlight of the album Memoire Tropical. Very Melody Nelson-ish with that choir-sound, the trumpet and the long, long intro. It might be raining outside, with this beautiful music, the sun sets every night in a golden haze.

New Christine & the Queens video

  • Posted on 25/11/2013
  • /Under Video

Christine (Nantes-born Heloise Letissier) said about this track and video: “The Loving Cup is a song I wrote just after seeing Paris is Burning for the first time. I wanted to make a power song that could allow everybody who listens to it to be fierce. It is an invitation to join Christine and to recreate yourself to become exactly who you want to be without being judged: therefore The Loving Cup works just like a Vogue Ball. And the party is opened for everybody without exception: all we need right now is love and acceptance. The boy starring in the video could be anyone: he’s mysterious and never reveals the true reason of his transformation. But the fact that he needs to escape and have fun is good enough for us.”
The band was formed in London, where Heloise/Christine was down and out when she met a couple of drag queen “who helped me getting back on my feet. Because they were rejected, or because they had to fight to be just who they wanted to be, they usually are generous and welcoming with those who seem lost. And I think we really need this kind of human warmth nowadays.”
This danceable track (think Sia, think Florence) differs from the more downtempo song we’ve posted on this blog earlier (this one, this one) and it’s not in French. The album’s out next year, and it will include at least a couple of French tracks. Which is good.

Musica Nuda

  • Posted on 22/11/2013
  • /Under Musique

© Angelo TraniMusica Nuda, naked music, is an Italian duo (vocalist Petra Magoni, upright bass player Feruccio Spinetti). It’s a ‘vocal ‘n bass’ twosome who enjoy the art of silence in music. From the bio: ‘a basic and often underrated aspect of it, that leads to the true emotion and underline the value or a lyric, a story, the meaning of every single song, no matter if it’s dramatic, funny, energetic, romantic, sarcastic.’ Musica Nuda usually sing in English, they have worked with several jazz(y) artists, including French heroes like Sanseverino and Jacques Higelin, and recorded songs by Henri Salvador. On the just released new album Banda Larga they’ve expanded their sound, with wood, brass and steel. Listen to a spine tickling version of Des Ronds dans l’eau, written by Pierre Barouh and made famous by Françoise Hardy. And like Sky points out in the comments, this song does sound a lot like Frankie Valli’s Can’t take my eyes off of you.

Speaking of Françoise, she turns 70 next January. FillesSourires will mark that occasion with some very special posts. More on that later.

Musica Nuda – Des rons dans l’eau
Live version:

Sophie Desmarais

1000_201303142056428stc21_MGD_4888Yes, feast your eyes and ears on this dear FillesSourires-visitors. Sophie’s an Quebecoise, an actress who also sings in this new movie called Chasse au Godard d’Abbittibbi. See IMDB for a short description, see this YT-clip too. Set in 1968, it means that Sophie wears lots of eyeliner and looks like a cross between Francoise Hardy and Anna Karina. And she can sing-sigh like the best of ‘m. Listen to the whole soundtrack, including tracks by Les Breastfeeders and FS-fave Ariane Moffatt, here.

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