Very sweet, dreamy track from the second album by French-Canadian singer Jeanne Côté:
Musique
Delphine
From Quebec, and with a lotta sultry soul in her voice and music (gotta love that electric piano), this is the strongest song on Delphine’s new EP:
La Securité
French-Candian post-punk. Hyphen hyphen hype! The song isn’t about condiments, ‘rather sarcastically alluding to the delicious tomato-based sauce with the line, “L’affaire est ketchup”, a Québec expression meaning: “All is well”.’
Pâle Regard
Missed it when it was released, last Monday, but this New Order cover by dreampopband Pâle Regard works on EVERY day of the week:
Evergreen
If there ever was a moment to leave this planet behind, off to greener, less dark pastures, it’s these days filled with war, fake news, environmental damage, orange presidents and other depressing affairs.
French trio Evergreen made a song about that feeling. “This cosmic ballad sung in French imagines a narrator looking for someone to join her in her rocket as she escapes a planet Earth now completely ruined by mankind.”
At least this is beautiful:
Lou K
Tis not that we don’t post loud rock on this blog. See this. And this. But it’s rare. The punky vibe in this track by Lou K is far from almost anything posted here:
But the Belgian trio, who count Kim Gordon and PJ Harvey as their queens, also like to tone it down. Like in this enchanting song:
J’aime les filles
That headline, you could call it the mission statement of this blog. For 20 years, it’s my pleasure to highlight the joys that French pop music, sung by girls, provide. It’s mostly new tracks that are featured, but I’m aware of the big yeye-legacy, of course. If you’re (still) a follower of this blog, you know.
A man who’s extremely aware of that legacy is former book publisher and collector Vic van de Reijt. We live close to each other, we’ve met, we did some things together (I wrote the introduction to the Dutch version of Sylvie Simmons’ Gainsbourg biography, that Vic published). Vic’s been an advocate for French 60s pop music for decades (he also compiled cd’s with other musical styles).
And now J’aime Les Filles has been released. Red and blu vinyl only! With a very coule tracklist, ranging from Cléo to Clothilde, from Jacqueline Taïeb to Jane Birkin. Not just hits, also the nuggets. Carefully annotated by Vic. Fine fine music, still, and near the end Vic selected more recent tunes by Mareva Galanter, plus Dutch chanteuses Bobbi and yeye-retrogirl Fleur. Still, the glorious feministic anthem ‘Les Filles C’est Fait Pour Faire L’Amour’ by Charlotte Leslie and the lyrical genius of ‘Fais-moi mal, Johnny!’ by Magali Noël are rock solid, exciting TUNES. Untarnished.
What makes this album even nicer, in a way, is that there’s a sticker on the cover. It just claims ‘Met zuchtmeisjes’, which means ‘With soft-sighing girls’. Or, in a way, ‘filles sourires’. The Dutch term was thought up by Dutch novelist Ronald Giphart, who first used it in his second book ‘Giph’. The protagonist claimed that his love interest Noëlle was his ‘zuchtmeisje’, whenever he saw her, he got weak in the knees and just had to sigh; ‘thinking of a sun setting behind a mountain, the things of life and the transiency of the thing around us.’ And, of course, he wanted to go to bed with Noëlle. Enfin.
That term got stuck in my head when I started this blog two decades ago; it was both the way some of the women sang (hoarse, sultry), and what there appearance caused. Because of the blog, the term flew around for a couple of years (early 2000s), but there was some resistance too. Looking back, there’s more than a pinch of paternalism there, no?
It still works as a recommendation, apparently. Hence the sticker. And there ARE some real zuchtmeisjes on the lps; Zouzou, Jane Birkin, Brigitte Bardot. Well, Ronald Giphart nor I get any credit on the sleeve for the term. Soit. It does bring back the heydays of this blog, which is nice. But would I still use ‘zuchtmeisjes’ as freely as I did years ago? Non.
Non non je ne veux pas t’aimer
J’ai bien le temps d’y penser
Assez
Assez
Lubiana
On her second album, ‘Belgo-Camerounaise’ singer and kora-player Lubiana shows her ability to be tender, poignant and danceable. She sings in English, French and Bangwa. She’s an avid jazz-fan (Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan) but also inspired by 90s R&B divas like Lauryn Hill. And, of course, by the African greats like Toumani Diabate. Terre Rouge refers to the red clay of Cameroon. Love that powerful, yet sweet smokey voice.
Bouche Carrée
Bouche Carrée is the nom de plume of Marseille’s Melanie Perez. She released an EP with disco-infected, yacht-rock referencing French pop, with soulful undertones and a sunny vibe. When I look outside, it’s grey and rainy at the moment (hey, c’est l’automne) but Bouche Carrée makes me feel like I’m floating on an inflatable.
Pâle Regard
I was raised on a steady diet of Cocteau Twins, Lush and other merchants of ethereal guitars and reverb-y vocals (or reverb-y guitars and ethereal vocals). So Pâle Regard has a special place in my heart, and this new EP is just GREAT. Already posted the highlight (Collation), but this uplifting, catchy track is a delight too: