HERE you can find a mix (download from where it says HIER) with my favourite French summer songs of this year (some released last year, but soit) , it’s a reaction to this mix made by my friend Norbert Pek, that I can also recommend (download that one from HIER). Some tracks you may know and not every track on my Parfait-mix is in French, just to show you how rich French music can be. Raul Paz comes from Cuba, the girl from Dinner at the Thompson’s is American and Pony Pony Run Run just like to sing and sound like a British band, I guess. Have fun on the autoroute du soleil, or wherever you may roam. (Yes, I know the title is grammatically incorrect, but the series is called Perfect …, so there)
Two pretty songs to let the sun shine in. But no singles. You can watch Brune in the video above sing N’oublie pas, from her recently released EP (featuring the fantastic Paris). But I chose for Rupture Song, in which she proves that French girls singing in English can be highly charming (as if we did not know this already).
The single for Annecy-born Loren Lopez‘ EP is British Attraction, a great video that shows her as France’s answer to Lily Allen and Kate Nash. But La Romance is a far better song, very sixties-oriented with a super-bassline.
Brune – Rupture Song
Loren Lopez – La Romance
Coeur de Pirate, aka Beatrice Martin, covers Air! We @ FillesSourires HQ we worship the ground she walks on ever since we fell really hard for her magnificent debut. For radio station NRJ CdP recorded an intimate session (with just a piano), featuring stripped songs from that debut and a remarkable cover of Air’s Playground Love, a song they recorded (with Phoenix-singer Thomas Mars) for the Virgin Suicide soundtrack. See an interview with CdP about the session here, see a video of Ensemble here. Alas, the session is only available via iTunes France (soooo stupid), but thanks to J-P, here’s that Air-cover.
Coeur de Pirate – Playground Love
IN OTHER NEWS, I recorded several podcasts for Dutch internet-only station KX Radio. My show’s called Ongehoord Goed (Unheard Brilliance) and focusses on non-English pop- and rocksongs, from France, Spain, Brazil, Cambodia, Japan, Finland, etc. You can download the first two from here, and here. Yes, it is presented in Dutch, but the music’s universal, right? More to follow!
Summer started last week, so now it’s time to divide the gold from the lead, the real shiners from the plastic. Of course, summer is not over yet and there maybe songs that start shining over the next weeks. But here’s a cool trio you can’t go wrong with:
Babet – Je pense a nous. Dionysos-member Babet Maistre (or Babou Calou, as she’s calling her self on Facebook) will release a second album after summer, but this great track warms my face and other bodyparts in a very pleasant way already.
Babet – Je pense a nous
ZAZ – Je veux. From Bordeaux, but with exotic roots, ZAZ has the smile in her voice that fits her exotic, diverse music really well.
ZAZ – Je veux
And finally, the second EP of our beloved La Fiancee is out. To be honest, I’m less impressed than with her debut but this song makes me want to lie down under a shady tree and play it over and over and over and over again.
La Fiancee – On avait jure
Remember when you first heard Coeur de Pirate, maybe on this blog? Like me, you were probably blown away. That voice, that song, those tattoos. Ever since you, like me, tried to relive that experience. Find another fragile, French-singing girl with superbe songs to refresh you in places you’d never imagine could be refresh. Montreal-based singer Melanie Scala, aka Porcelaine, has the ability. Her 5 track EP is not as brilliant as CdP’s album, some songs need more character, but boyohboy what a gorgeous track is Mirage. Reminds me of Elsa (this one), of a young Vanessa Paradis, love the bassline and the fx. Melanie says she’s inspired by Air, Rufus Wainwright and Charlotte Gainsbourg – I could swear it’s Charlotte looking desperately from the album-cover. She worked with guys who also played with Stephanie Lapointe and Ariane Moffatt – always a good sign. Looking forward to a full album.
Porcelaine – Mirage
Charlotte Gainsbourg was in the Cirque Royal last Saturday, tomorrow Vanessa Paradis plays an acoustic set there. This is part of an extensive tour that will end in the Chateau de Versailles, where the show will be recorded. Thanks to SOM, here’s raw footage from that tour, Vanessa doing Françoise Hardy’s Le temps de l’amour.
Vanessa Paradis – Le temps de l’amour
Keren Ann singing in Ivrit, can’t remember if I ever posted her cover of Rechov Ha’nashamot Ha’tehorot (by Israeli band Pure Souls, the songtitle translates At the Pure Soul Street), but it’s excellent. It sounds like it was used in a Hebrew version of Bilitis, with it’s soft-focus fx. It was recorded for a compilation to celebrate 60 years of Israel. No wonder she was asked, KA was born near Haifa, and moved to Paris when she was 11 (she also retains Dutch citizenship). Keren Ann Zeidel recently recorded a duet with Israeli singer Shlomi Shaban for Amnesty International. A special version of By the Cathedral, originally on the Not Going Anywhere-cd. The Spanish branch set up the Peace campaign, for ” aimed at preventing cases of Human Rights abuses around the world”. For a small donation (starting from 5 US dollars) you can download 180 (!) exclusive songs from bands from all over the world, including FS-faves like Vive la Fête and Amélie-les-Crayons, but also Black Strobe, a balladeer, Marike Jager, Ra Ra Riot, Port O’Brien, Malajube, Buck65 and many, many more. Recommended!
Keren Ann – Rechov Ha’nashamot Ha’tehorot
Pure Souls – Rechov Ha’nashamot Ha’tehorot
Keren Ann & Shlomi Shaban – By the Cathedral