Articles Written By: Sky

Becky & Serge Go Motown

  • Posted on 14/04/2012
  • /Under Musique

Liverpoolian babe Rebecca Ferguson came second to some painter dude on British casting couch show X-Factor in 2011. She sang Chris Isaac’s Wicked Game then, he crooned Amy Winehouse and Roberta Flack. They must have swapped the songs inadvertently, since Becky Ferguson’s debut album Heaven is unmistakably another one in the Retro Soul Mixed With Dusty, Randy, Macy, Tracy, Amy & Adele Vein. With a difference. Although with the help of Adele collaborator Eg White, her songs are mostly self-written, and okay ones. The most remarkable one might be Mr. Bright Eyes, sounding for a few elusive déja-vu moments like Serge G. had once been a contract writer for Berry Gordy. But come to think of postmodernism and intertextuality: Probably Serge had listened to some Motown records back in 1967, too.

Rebecca Ferguson – Mr. Bright Eyes

Amours Perdues

  • Posted on 31/03/2012
  • /Under Musique

First sight, nice one. A compilation about the life and times of Serge & and highly underrated singer Bébé, titled Lost Loves, of course a reference to Gainsbourg’s Les Amours Perdues. Actually, and we’re in a mild mood today, the album is a bit of a miss: The ten Gainsbourg-sung titles that open the album have nothing to do with BB, and the „cool sounds from her hot scenes“ rehash some pseudo-swelty jazz instros from BB’s early movies; including no vocals, of course, and though the bag includes Brigitte’s version of Sidonie, issued as a flexi disc by Sonorama magazine in 1961, it’s not even a Gainsbourg song, spelled Sidone here – probably the final indicator that the guys at Cherry Red Records already had lost love and interest when they cobbled this cheapo together in one and a half min, the most intriguing tune here being Isabelle Aubret’s (!) version of La chanson de Prévert. And, believe it or not, that’s really a Gainsbourg song.

Isabelle Aubret – La Chanson de Prévert
Brigitte Bardot – Sidonie

Under Mike’s Umbrella

  • Posted on 17/03/2012
  • /Under Musique

Ah, Françoise. Everybody had a crush on her back in the Sixties, that shy, well-bred brunette with those wistful chansons who seemed to spend all her time under her umbrella. One of her most iconic songs was Dans le Monde Entier, issued in 1965, evocating that endless Parisian rainy season once again. Of course future Wombles mastermind Mike Batt, 16 years old then, was also in love with Françoise, and Georgian-British songstress Katie Melua‘s cover of the English version, produced by Batt for her brand new album Secret Symphony, is a recollection of those cloudy days of innocence. Melua captures the mood of the tune just perfectly, though the last line now isn’t the heartbreak threnody of a young girl anymore, but the last echo of young Mike Batt’s clandestine longing: I still love you so.

Katie Melua – All Over the World

Françoise Hardy – Dans le Monde Entier
Françoise Hardy – All Over the World

Spoiler Alert

  • Posted on 16/03/2012
  • /Under Video

Don’t watch this one if you haven’t seen Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy so far. Or do. However, the brilliant end montage of Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of the famous John le Carré novel features the full-length version of La Mer by … Julio Iglesias, catapulting the Spanish schmaltz yodeler right into the realm of Supercoolio. One that goes directly to the head.

When Gréco Met Apollinaire

  • Posted on 13/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Certainly Juliette Gréco’s new record is a must-have. It’s about, yes, bridges. Those places that span rivers, where you can meet other people or the Grim Reaper in case you prefer to jump over the railing. The probably finest song on Ca se traverse et c’est beau might be Mirabeau sous le pont, a clever, multi-layered hommage to the classic French poet, proto-surrealist and enfant terrible Guillaume Apollinaire, written by 80-years-old Jean-Claude Carrière, script writer of Bunuel’s Belle de Jour and 10000 other classics of the French silver screen. Of course, the song works like a movie. And surely it’s adult cinema.

Juliette Gréco – Mirabeau sous le pont

Montréal Magnifique: Marie-Pierre A. (Country Return)

  • Posted on 13/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Marie-Pierre Arthur’s brand new album Aux Alentours being a fave drug at FS headquarters right now, we’ve got an excellent reason to throw a retrospective look over the shoulder: Actually, her self-titled 2009 debut features a lot of that distinctive Opal/ Mazzy Star feel from those Early Recordings times when Kendra Smith was still around – including the highly artful Ma tête à off, a super laidback country slow burner with a tenderly floating quality. Similarly captivating: Her version of Nino Ferrer’s 1972 smash hit La maison près de la fontaine, slightly countrified for the Canadian hommage compilation Allo Nino.

Marie-Pierre Arthur – Ma tête à off

Marie-Pierre Arthur – La maison près de la fontaine
Nino Ferrer – La maison près de la fontaine

Une fille de 85 ans

  • Posted on 09/02/2012
  • /Under Video

Too often reduced to Deshabillez-moi, Juliette Gréco was not only the ultimate Existentialist poster girl of the late 40s, but also the most charismatic chanteuse of the post-Piaf chanson. She still is, her brand new album Ca se traverse et c’est beau featuring stunning lyrics by Amélie Nothomb and Jean-Claude Carrière, among others. Yesterday, the mysterious dark-haired girl who once was asked by Boris Vian why she never said a word, turned 85. Belated bon anniversaire, Muse, Amoureuse, Immortelle.

Do Your Math

  • Posted on 08/02/2012
  • /Under Video

In 1965, comic illustrator Jean-Claude Forest created futuristic heroine Marie Mathématique for French TV, kind of a little sister of Bébé Cyanure (Baby Cyanide) and 60s icon Barbarella who brought Forest world fame and was played by Jane Fonda in Roger Vadim’s masturbation blockbuster. Venusian Marie, “la jeune fille comme il faut”, appeared in six all-too short episodes within ORTF’s Dim Dam Dom tv magazine — a pop art kitten sexed up additionally by the low-pitched cool of singer/ storyteller Serge Gainsbourg. Extraordinary stuff, not to be missed. Giggles and chuckles by another outlandish creature: France Gall.

Marie-Pierre Arthur: Aux Alentours

  • Posted on 07/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Problem with Jan/ Feb releases is that they usually are forgotten by the end of the year. Not this one. We already fell in love with Québecoise singer Marie-Pierre Arthur after discovering her on Buck 65’s brilliant 20 Odd Years and her first, self-titled solo effort featuring the lovely folk-pop gem Pourquoi in 2009. Her brand new album, Aux Alentours, features finest eclectic fille pop all the way, combining shades of 70s glam rock, intricate touches of 80s dream pop and glimpses of retro attitude: Her voice encompasses the raw and the smooth perfectly, the tunes changing effortlessly between catchy melodies, gritty riffs and sweet, at times angelic moods. Marie-Pierre has claimed somewhere that originality does not exist, but proves herself wrong with almost every single song: Aux Alentours may start in Reference Alley, but heads straight to Reinvention Boulevard in that Grand State of the Art.

Marie-Pierre Arthur – Pour une fois
Marie-Pierre Arthur – Les infidèles

Buck 65 w/ Marie-Pierre Arthur – Final Approach

Initiales D.D.

  • Posted on 03/02/2012
  • /Under Video

Last song on Diane Dufresne’s Turbulences, 1982. Written by Monsieur G., and definitely not a virgin suicide.

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