Musique

Year lists (3)

I’m still in doubt about 2012…If you’d asked me one week ago  what kind of year it was in French music, I would have said “hmm”…
Big names fell short, no album really stood out, no song kept ringing around in my head…
But that was last week. When making this list and going through all the music, it turned out 2012 wasn’t that bad. A lot of talent stood out. So no Françoise Hardy, no Berry, No Pauline Croze, no Daphné, no Barbara Carlotti….but instead:

10 Dawn Landes – Mal Habillée
When one of our French girls releases an album with English songs, we regret it most of the time. But when an American girl has the nerve to release an album with only French songs, I go “Yay!”, and give her a special reward by including her in my year list.
Look here.

9 Buridane – Pas Fragile
A few years ago we heard a few songs from this chanteuse. And then silence…. Nothing more from Buridane, until this year, out of the blue there was here album.
Although we don’t agree on the title, obviously…
Check her video for “Badaboum”

8 Céline Ollivier  – La Femme À L’éventail
Sweet surprise on #8. Her name was humming around on the internet for some time and there it was, her debut album “La Femme À L’éventail’, by this classical educated chanteuse. Excellent songs, very pure, and very personal. Listen to one of her songs “Au Flore” here.

7 Amélie Veille – Mon Coeur Pour Te Garder
Never heard about her before this album, but it turned out to be her third. Although it was six year since her last one. Yet another Quebecoise in a year list..Video officiel: ici

6 Céline Mastrorelli – Elle Était Une Fois
Guuzbourg wrote: “A favourite past time is to follow the progress of supersweet singer Celine Mastrorelli. She first popped up on our rader in 2008”, and now she fulfilled our expectations with  “Elle Était Une Fois”. Look and listen here

5 Sophie Vaillancourt – Histoires De Filles Et De Garçons
When I first heard about this album, I had no expectations at all. It looked “poppy”, she was a former of Star Académie participant, so not really things that would appeal to me.
But then I listened to it and was pleasantly surprised. Poppy, yes, but in a folky way and it all sounds very fresh. Top 5 material!
(couldn’t find a video, but here she is singing at her own release party!

4 Mademoiselle Nineteen – Mademoiselle Nineteen
Almost missed this one in my year list, because it was very early in the year when this one came out. Sparkling sixties sound from a girl from Liege. Year lists are good for replays! Here’s the lovely retro clip of “Quelle importance“.

3 Fanny Bloom – Apprentie guerrière
What a surprise this one! And again an example of the wonderful talented pool of singers from Quebec. Won the prestigious Félix de l’Album alternatif de l’année for his album.

2 Lou Doillon – Places
This should be actually my number one..But since the whole album is in English, it makes it difficult to top the list. Since this album gets better by everytime you listen to it, it must be in in the list. (I.C.U. clip here)

1 Melanie Pain – Bye Bye Manchester
When I gave this album a first listening, I was happy and relieved… Yes, this is the kind of music, the kind of voice and the kind of atmosphere that made me a Fille fan. See her perform the title song live ici!

When it comes to defining one’s beauty, hair is one of the most significant things to put into consideration, for this reason is important that you learn about 10 facts about hair.

Year lists (2)

All FillesSourires-contributors (me, FransS, Sky and Maks, see below) are posting their year lists in the upcoming days. Plus, we asked several regular guestposters and FS-fans to send in their lists too. List-o-mania, baby!

1. Marie Pierre Arthur – Aux Alentours.
MPA isn’t the antithesis to Coeur de Pirate (my #1 of 2011), but there are obvious differences. Less tattoos, more guitar than piano-driven and in lyrics and feel slightly older, more mature. Aux Alentours is MPA’s sophomore offering, with hard-hitting hits (Si tu savais) and almost esotheric ballads (A Partir de maintenant). It’s the French(-Canadian) album I played the most in the past months, the one that kept on giving, the one that left a mark.

2. Fanny Bloom – Apprentie Guerrière.
‘Lio-esque’ is the penultimate compliment on this blog (the biggest is of course ‘Gainsbourgian’). On Parfait Parfait, Fanny’s almost out-Lio’ing Wanda de Vasconcelos, and that’s REALLY saying something. Yes, I do miss La Patère Rose, but this plaster covers that wound quite nicely. Merci Fanny.

3. Céline Mastrorelli – Elle Était Une Fois.
Speaking of Gainsbourgian, listening to Céline’s duet with Joseph d’Anvers (T’oublies or not t’oublies) is like ASMR to me. Goosebumps, hair-raising, butterflies in the belly, everthing. And that’s just one song on this album that is as beautiful as Céline herself.

4. Françoise Hardy – L’amour fou.
Haven’t read the novel that came with this album (waiting for the English translation) but if it is as good as this album, it’s quite a read. Françoise ages with grace, dignity and songwriters who provide songs that fit her like stylish black leather gloves. See Pourquoi Vous? here.

5. Melody’s Echo Chamber – s/t.
This is cheating a little, because there are more English than French tunes on this debut. But hey, she’s called Melody! She is French! And she sings really, really husky! And I simply ADORE this kind of shoegaze with electronica with Gainsbourgian touches.

Bubbling under: Francoiz Breut, Emily Loizeau, Barbara Carlotti, Liza Manili, Olivia Ruiz and Mademoiselle Nineteen.

Merci for yet another hoarse voices-filled year. Keep it up!
Guuzbourg

Year lists (1)

  • Posted on 11/12/2012
  • /Under Musique

Fanny Bloom1. Fanny Bloom – Apprentie Guerrière
With this superb debut solo-album, Fanny Grosjean left the sometimes somewhat naïve songs of La Patère Rose far behind. Apprentie Guerrière is mature and diverse and never fails. Bloom shows with this album that she grew in all facets of her writing and luckily still has her delightful, hoarse voice on top of it.
Listen to ‘Mon Hiver‘ and feel everything a song needs. In only 1:40 minutes that is, simply brilliant.

2. Françoiz Breut – La Chirurgie Des Sentiments
Never a dull moment with Françoiz. With ‘La Chirurgie Des Sentiments’ she managed to surprise again within her very own and very special universe. And wherever she will take you in that weird universe, being with Françoiz somehow never feels uncomfortable. In contrary.

3. Celine Mastrorelli – Elle Était Une Fois
It took beauty of the year Celine Mastrorelli quite a while to come up with a full album. But it was worth the wait. Celine does it the way we like it most at FS. Check ‘Lost in Paris’ and you’ll understand why.

4. Mélanie Pain – Bye Bye Manchester
Too bad she did only half of the tracks on this album in French. In spite of that she easily made it into this years top 5 with her ukulele and Casio. Original songs, seductive singing, all the ingredients we already know from Nouvelle Vague, but she can do it on her own very well.

5. Mademoiselle Nineteen – idem
Fresh, quirky, contemporary and poppy, exactly what you might expect with a name like ‘Mademoiselle Nineteen’. Nevertheless reminiscents of earlier days (Lio! France Gall!) are never far away and in this case that’s a good thing. The Lolita-esque Belgian singer recorded the most cheerful album of the year without getting obligatory.

Wishing you all the best for the next year!
Maks

Brigitte covers Gainsbourg

  • Posted on 03/12/2012
  • /Under Musique

Kooky pop duo Brigitte (Aurelie & Sylvie) released an extended version of their quirky debut, Et Vous Tu M’Aimes?. It features a bonus disc with leftovers and covers, songs by RUN DMC (Walk this way), George Michael (I Want Your Sex) and yes, our beloved Serge. Brigitte’s take on Chez les Ye-Ye is danceable, well-arranged and one of the better cover versions, I’d say.

Brigitte – Chez les ye-ye (video of Serge’s original here)

Sophie Vaillancourt

Another guestpost by David! Woo!

After disappearing for a few years since reaching the finals of Star Académie in 2009, Sophie Vaillancourt has her first album, “Histoires de filles et de garçons”. Sophie opted not to take the risk of pursuing a full time career in music right away, completing her degree in elementary school education from the University of Montreal, earning the money to put herself through school by modeling. She looks nothing at all like any of my grade school teachers.

For her album, Sophie wrote half the songs herself, poppy songs with bright melodies and a tinge of melancholy to the lyrics, exhibiting a clear ’60’s influence (think Simon and Garfunkel). She worked with David Brunet, a name some might recognize from his work with Coeur de Pirate or Tricot Machine. There’s a nice article that discusses how this came to be here. My favorite song from the CD, “Danser Sous La Pluie”, leads off.
For fun, here is a snippet of another favorite, “Alors J’irai”, sung by Sophie with her class. I can’t find any videos for her album, other than this promo, but the camera loves her, so it’s highly likely her label will make it happen eventually.

P.S.: It’s been a pretty good year for filles fragiles – here’s a video from Brigitte Saint-Aubin’s new album, “Glamour”.

Sophie Vaillancourt – Pour lui plaire
Sophie Vaillancourt – Les sentiers regrettés

Marianne Dissard

  • Posted on 26/11/2012
  • /Under Musique

We live in interesting times, people. Times where elegant country-noir singers like Marianne Dissard, she of the brilliant L’Entredeux, she who rubs shouders with the Calexico’s and members of Willie Nelson’s band, can’t get a record label to release her new album The Cat. Not Me. If you hear L’Oiseau, you wonder why. Surely, this soundtrack for Paris, Texas, if it had been shot in the Camargue, is sultry and brutal – just like Marianne herself. So enjoy this track. Not sure when we can hear the rest. If you’re new to Marianne and her music, go here.

Marianne Dissard – Oiseau

Wendy Nazaré

  • Posted on 22/11/2012
  • /Under Musique

David’s spoiling us with another guestpost, on exotic beauty Wendy Nazaré.

I don’t know if others are the same way, but it is rare that I can listen to a new CD all the way through without getting bored at some point. Usually, the music begins to sound somewhat the same, and I find it’s better to come back to it. So, when I listened to Wendy Nazare’s “A tire d’ailes” straight through twice, I was very pleasantly surprised. (This happened to me earlier this year with Porcelaine’s new album, see the post on Filles Sourires here. While I’m thinking about it, there are some excellent videos from Porcelaine’s concert at Francofolies here, here and (my favorite) here.)

Back to Wendy. Her family comes originally from Algeria, reaching Belgium by way of Portugal and England, per her Myspace site. There are traces of all these places in her music. The instrumentals stand out: clean, varied and complex. Wendy’s voice ranges from soft and clouded to ringing clear and full, a sound like some recent artists out of Quebec, such as Chloe LaCasse, Marie-Pierre Arthur or Ingrid St-Pierre (Ingrid’s got a new album out, by the bye, “L’Escapade”). It may not be coincidence that her first record contract was with a record company out of Quebec. “Nairobi River” is a fair example, with a video here. There are other videos, each tending to remind me of Wendy’s Myspace description of how she sang at family gatherings as a little girl – the videos are happy and somewhat chaste, as if she were still singing with Mom, Dad and the family watching. “Au gout eighties” video is another example, or a duet with Pep’s, “Lisboa”. Her music lifts, filles fragile.

While Wendy’s first album from four years ago is not quite on the same level, it showed promise, with songs such as “Amabi”, or “Y’a une bombe”. I’ve attached a couple favorites from “A tires d’ailes”.

Wendy Nazaré – Juliana
Wendy Nazaré – Galway

Biolay covers Blur

  • Posted on 21/11/2012
  • /Under Musique

Not too sure what to think of Ben’s recent lust for taking the English road. Here, he covers Out of Time by Blur for radio station Le Mouv’

Amandine Maissiat

  • Posted on 21/11/2012
  • /Under Musique

Guestpost! David on Amandine Maissiat and her former band, Subway.


Sometimes it’s just a bit of luck. Going through a bunch of older CD’s in the music bins, I came across “L’Intranquille” by Subway. I couldn’t find much on the group initially (it didn’t help that several groups have the same name), but eventually found a couple of videos (Paris, Nos Nuits d’Opaline), and after giving them a listen went and bought the album…

Pretty girl, strong guitar, strong voice, with a bit of an edge…there’s never enough of that. In the comments, Amandine Maissiat was mentioned (yep, it’s her), which led me to the video (whoa) that sounded so familiar, the one posted here back in January.

So, it turns out after making “L’Intraquille” Amandine and Subway parted ways. A pity. Here’s an interview where Amandine discusses the reasons why. Subway originally was formed by four friends, all the way back in 1991, eventually putting out a first album, Rien ne se voit in 2003. The instrumentals in “L’Intranquille” are strong so I will probably seek out their first CD eventually. According to this, the group has finally called it quits this year.
Amandine plays on, with her EP “Maissiat” released early this year, also well worth it as you might guess from the video.

Here are two of my favorites from “L’Intraquille”.

Subway – Ces Mots Là
Subway – Sauvez-moi

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