Chilean psych-rock band The Holydrug Couple recorded a organ-heavy version of Je t’aime… moi non plus for a Record Store Day compilation. More on that here.
Musique
Autour de Lucie
Hell just froze over: Autour de Lucie is back. The seminal French rock band, the only mid-90s band from the Hexagone that was on par with the big alt rock names from the UK and USA, reformed (they called it quits about 10 years ago). Singer Valerie Leulliot announced a new album, there’s a new single especially for Record Store Day. Rejoice!
Autour de Lucie – Ta lumière particulière
Axelle Red
Yet another guest post by Steve, on red hot Axelle:
Firstly, a small confession. I’ve never been a huge fan of Axelle Red. Sure, I’d retrospectively discovered “À Tâtons“, a superb fusion of Memphis Soul, Nashville Country and French “Je ne sais quoi” (or should that be Flemish “Ik weet niet wat”? – sorry Guuz) (Actually, that should read: ‘dat onbekende iets’- G’bourg), but for some unknown reason we’d kind of failed to connect; She had “The Voice”, but similar to my review of Alizée, I’d often found the material a little disappointing. I guess this is more my fault than hers, but there were always other artists and discoveries which prevented me giving her a second chance.
And then I came across this and just the other week I discovered that the album Rouge Ardent had actually gotten a Stateside release…
This may be Axelle’s ninth studio album, but to these ears it’s easily her best. Here was an album that again married the voice with the material it deserved. Rouge Ardent is a collection of 10 expertly crafted songs in which she’s drawn from all of her 20 year career to pull together an incredibly soulful album.
The album opens with “Amour profond”, a great upbeat number with a wall of horns and percussion that in part, dare I say, reminds me of Dusty Springsfield’s “Breakfast in Bed” from her classic “Memphis” album. All wrapped and delivered with Axelle’s distinctive vocals…
And while we’re on the subject, has Axelle’s voice ever sounded this good? There’s a certain humility to the album, especially on “Quelque part allieurs”, a beautiful plaintive long-song built around crystal vocals and a simple piano. Meanwhile the title track literally boils with intensity and is worth the admission price alone.
However, it’s a little unfair to pick out a mere handful of tracks (oh alright then, I love the haunting “Sur La Route Sablée”). Talents as diverse as Stephan Eicher, Albert Hammond and the cream of Memphis including Lester Snell and Steve Potts, all contribute to make this a tight, expertly crafted masterpiece of a record.
I mentioned at the start of this review that this was a soulful album. It’s actually a Soul album. Seventeen years after the seminal “À Tâtons”, Axelle returns with a beautiful hommage to Memphis and the home of Stax.
Axelle Red – Sur La Route Sablée
Axelle Red – Amour profond
Ah! Melody!
Download for free a cover version of Gainsbourg’s Ah! Melody! by Emilie Simon and producer/Beirut-trumpeteer Kelly Pratt aka Bright Moments HERE
Fusée Dorée
Amsterdam-based, but very French neo-new wave artiste Emmanuelle Ornon aka Fusée Doreée has a new EP out, on Bandcamp. This, I think, is the best track
Alizée
Guestpost time again! Steve on the new Alizée album:
It’s probably safe to say that the release of Alizée’s 2010 “comeback” album, “Une Enfant du Siècle” – billed as a brave new style and change of direction – a concept album based around the life of American actress Edie Sedgwick – failed to resonate with the public at large, who obviously weren’t quite ready for the change of direction envisaged by the former teenage star. It wasn’t helped that the album was ultimately a mess of musical contradictions, and didn’t exactly set the (Francophone) world on fire.
So fast forward thee years and the release of Alizée’s fifth studio album, imaginatively titled “5” (her 5th album – geddit?) and it’s safe to say that the girl from Ajaccio is back with a vengeance. “5” is everything (and more) we were lead to believe that “Une Enfant du Siècle” was meant to be. With this album, without a doubt her best to date, Alizée hits upon the mature sound and style that she was striving for last time around.
The album’s opener “À cause de l’automne”, is as good a pop song as there is likely to be released this year, complete with an incredible 60’s intro, sweeping strings and a catchy chorus that embeds itself in your head. There’s a great mix of styles on this album, slower number such as “La guerre en dentelles”, “Mon chevalier” counterpoise nicely with “Je veux Bien” and “Le dernier soufle” both of which are great up-tempo songs.
Like most great albums, this feels very personal, indeed almost semi-autobiographical, and the lyrics would certainly appear to mirror upheavals in Alizée’s life, none more so than in the heartfelt “10 ans”. However, in an upbeat note, the album’s closer “Dans mon sac” wistfully hints at a new dawn, as if the recording of this album was part of a cathartic process.
This is a damn fine pop record. The production qualities are top notch, there’s great use of orchestral strings and horns which complement, never over-powering the vocals. Alizée has always had a great voice, but all too often never the material.
Alizée – Le dernier soufle
New Fanny Bloom EP
Recorded with a trio, live in the studio. It’s ‘name your price’ on Bandcamp:
La Plus Grande Fille
Guestpost! Mark takes on a linkfest with great performances by La Grande Sophie:
“La Grande Sophie est un spectacle à elle toute seule, tant sur le plan visuel que sur le plan vocal” Pub pour le festival Muzik’elles septembre 2012
La Grande Sophie is great in many ways, and not the least is that her concerts have the most dramatic start of any on the planet. Her band is in place in the dark, the sound and lighting build up, the first bars of ‘Ma Radio’ are heard, and suddenly there she is on the stage. Not Sophie la giraffe as she once laughingly called herself, or the Amazon which her self-given name suggests, but a perfect figure: a mane of dark hair, bare white arms and flashing eyes, in a short black dress and dark heeled boots. At 43, and 1m78 (‘5 pieds 10 pouces’ to Canadians; 6 ft in heels), she has a wonderful elegance.
In the summer of 2012, her dramatic festival appearances, 1½ hours, drew more and more people , and her concert list got longer and longer – it now runs to July 2013. By last November, at Mouscron (BE), Sophie’s show was 2 hours long, with 2 rappels, and this for an audience of 400. No other artiste has such a reach into the heart of both France and Belgium, in local theatres and halls. Her public sees her close-up, and experiences her now-celebrated ‘descente dans la salle’ while singing ‘Petite Princesse’.
What has happened to take Sophie Huriaux, former student of sculpture at the Collège des Beaux-Arts at Marseille, from rock, and aspiring to be the Chrissie Hynde of France until 2008, to the summit of French pop in 2012, winner of best album at the 2013 Victoires de la Musique ? She has described how she turned acoustic and changed her singing voice for her 2009 album ‘Des vagues et des ruisseaux’. ‘Quand le mois d’avril’ in this 2009 performance is just one example. In fact the change of public image was sudden – her appearance on MyTaratata in April 2009, with ‘Quelqu’un d’autre’. Since then she has not looked back. ‘La Place du Fantôme’ (2012) has built on this, and is a worthy winner of Les Victoires.
LGS is now a strong, versatile and yet sensitive performer. Her confidence means she starts her concerts with not one but two slow songs: ‘Ma Radio’ (whose lyrics are so clear that they hardly need translation), and then the ethereal, rarely-filmed ‘Tu fais ton âge’.
She holds back until the heart of her concerts her top track ‘Ne m’oublie pas’. This pop set-piece can be seen in a big-festival version at L’Hôtel de Ville, Paris, last summer; sung in the most fabulous dress on MyTaratata
in March 2012; stunningly performed in October with the musicians of Belle et Bum, Montreal; and with a string quartet in 2013.
‘Sucrer les fraises’, a song about old age, whose lyric she loves to discuss, has developed already, from the original acoustic on the album, into a striking new synthetised version (‘une version d’été’ LGS called it after first trialling it unannounced at Gourville (Charente) last June). See the video filmed at La Ciotat here, and LGS’s joy in its latest Paris performance.
And there is much more, including Barbara’s classic ‘Dis, quand reviendra-tu ?’ as a guitar solo – the leading 21st century interpretation of one of the 20th century’s greatest songs. And surprises, such as the France Gall hit ‘Laisse Tomber les Filles’ duetted with Ornette at La Cigale last month.
What makes LGS so good?
• Artistic talent – she studied sculpture – brilliant songwriting, fine arranging, a much improved voice
• Years of experience, giving her consistency, and ability to maintain a constant high standard of live performance through a tour of 120 concerts over 18 months
• Drawing on both Anglophone pop and the great French tradition of chanson
• Superbly crafted songs with strong instrumental sections, and she ends songs well
• Expert use of a very skilled four-piece band, and as good with just her own guitar
• Readiness to ‘remodel’ her older songs with new arrangements
• An attractive appearance on stage – she has talked about how important this is now
• An engaging personality, ready to give interviews and always positive
• An appeal to both sexes and a wide range of ages
LGS speaks, and sings in, good English but hardly needs to. For not the least of her qualities is that she speaks the most perfect French, as seen in interviews such as here and here.
One 40-something female fan sums her up here – “Belle, généreuse, et talentueuse – vive la quarantaine”. LGS is open about being “obsessed by the passage of time”; but likes to say that she has frozen it for herself: ‘J’ai arrêté le temps’. She gave up sculpture for music, because she wanted to succeed in ‘un art moins élitiste, plus populaire’. She has certainly achieved her aim.
For the world as seen by LGS and her fan base, visit www.facebook.com/LGSOfficiel
New Loane song
For the new movie by Michel Gondry. Awesome track:
Original version by France Gall:
Maria Goes to the Movies
1974’s Les Valseuses was a nice kick in the teeth of the bourgeoisie, a movie like they don’t make ’em anymore starring the young Gérard Depardieu, lovely Miou-Miou and of course the immortal Patrick Dewaere. The main theme of the beautiful soundtrack, written and performed by jazz violin legend Stéphane Grappelli, now comes to life again on Maria Markesini’s cinephile sound journey Cinema Passionata, also featuring a piece from Jacques Demy’s Demoiselles de Rochefort, and lots of other stuff from The Big Lebowsky to Amistad. Markesini, born on the Greek Island of Kefalonia and living in the Netherlands, is a chanteuse to watch. Her approach, oscillating between grand pop aria and Bobby McFerrin on crystal meth, doubtless has class, but also gets a bit tiring in the long run.
Maria Markesini – Rolls (Theme from Les Valseuses)