Brazilian Waxing, French Style
Admittedly, 2011 not only had trouvailles up its sleeve, but some serious bummers. Though I’m not talking Götz the Molester or any other of the obvious candidates here, but the real disappointments, letdowns, failures and fiascos. So here’s a Woeful Orgy of Rubbishy STuff, in short: the Worst List with the year’s albums to get over with.
01. Lulu Gainsbourg, Jazz EP. Many sons have problems with their famous fathers, and Lulu takes revenge, grand-style. Especially merciless: his Brazilian Waxing of La Javanaise. Charlotte, Bambou, and Jane decided not to take part in his first full-length album. I have an idea why.
02. Keren Ann, 101. Or how the Empress of Melancholia transformed into some wilted vegetable. The feel of the album might be Heroin Chic, as a friend of mine put it, but its bigger problem is its paralysis. You’ll easily find more vision, motion and emotion in an IKEA rack.
03. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stage Whispers. A mix of unassuming synth and trance ditties from the IRM sessions and a bunch of live material downers, this is one unbalanced, monotonous, boring mess. Turkey on top: a most direful cover of Dylan’s Just Like a Woman.
04. Camille, Ilo Veyou. If you thought Camille’s previous vocal acrobatics were show-offy, you haven’t listened to Ilo Veyou yet. And you should, in case you like a chanteuse permanently yelling „I am an artist!“ in your ears. If not, you might regard this one as an atrocity.
05. Ödland, Sankta Lucia. The times they are a-changin’: Two years ago, Ödland’s surrealist antique pop concept was fresh, different and dreamlike. Now it suffers from the deadly more-of-the-same illness, the priggish Slumberland attitude and Alizée B’s arthouse lolita character. This one sucks.
Extra:
06. Coeur de Pirate, Blonde. The full-body tattooed Golden Baby of the year with a competently produced, but quite unengaging album full of sugarcandy darling ballads – music to burn off your thumb to with your Bic lighter. Caution: Many people did so at Al Bano & Romina Power concerts.
And I should go on record to thank Sky for reminding me of “Pourquoi” by Marie-Pierre Arthur which I splurged out on via Amazon after checking out the video link. Also “Sur La Planche” by La Femme, which has been on heavy rotation here for a while.
But we’ll agree to differ on the merits of Beatrice Martin and Keren Ann.
It’s a bit like your irrational dislike of L’Ange Rouge, whom I will get around to defending… not that she needs my support 🙂
Just to make sure – the writers of FS do not agree on everything, or every artist. We like to tease each other in the comments about that, but all in good spirit. I think this blog would be very boring if Sky (for usually it’s him) would not stir up things every once in while.
Sky also considered a mashup a musical highlight of 2011. I assume at the end of this year, he will rave about that stangely new, exciting musical genre called ‘dub-step’
The Beatrice Martin backlash starts here… just awaiting Sky’s flaming of any English-language album she may record (see also “101” by Keren Ann).
Not sure I’d take any comments from a critic who rated Slove or L amongst the top releases of last year tooooooo seriously though 🙂