Musique

When Gréco Met Apollinaire

  • Posted on 13/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Certainly Juliette Gréco’s new record is a must-have. It’s about, yes, bridges. Those places that span rivers, where you can meet other people or the Grim Reaper in case you prefer to jump over the railing. The probably finest song on Ca se traverse et c’est beau might be Mirabeau sous le pont, a clever, multi-layered hommage to the classic French poet, proto-surrealist and enfant terrible Guillaume Apollinaire, written by 80-years-old Jean-Claude Carrière, script writer of Bunuel’s Belle de Jour and 10000 other classics of the French silver screen. Of course, the song works like a movie. And surely it’s adult cinema.

Juliette Gréco – Mirabeau sous le pont

Montréal Magnifique: Marie-Pierre A. (Country Return)

  • Posted on 13/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Marie-Pierre Arthur’s brand new album Aux Alentours being a fave drug at FS headquarters right now, we’ve got an excellent reason to throw a retrospective look over the shoulder: Actually, her self-titled 2009 debut features a lot of that distinctive Opal/ Mazzy Star feel from those Early Recordings times when Kendra Smith was still around – including the highly artful Ma tête à off, a super laidback country slow burner with a tenderly floating quality. Similarly captivating: Her version of Nino Ferrer’s 1972 smash hit La maison près de la fontaine, slightly countrified for the Canadian hommage compilation Allo Nino.

Marie-Pierre Arthur – Ma tête à off

Marie-Pierre Arthur – La maison près de la fontaine
Nino Ferrer – La maison près de la fontaine

Verlaine, Baudelaire and the Girls

  • Posted on 09/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Here’s an idea: let gorgeous filles like Claire Keim, Jenifer and Camelia Jordana sing poems by Verlaine, Baudelaire, Elouard and Carême. Add some garçons (Arthur H, Marc Lavoine, Babx), some unsinkable legends (Ferré, Hardy, Nougarro) and you have La Bande des Mots. A compilation to raise money for handicapped students, and to help popularize the great French poets. Not every poem is fit to be sung, to be honest. But Verlaine’s Il pleure dans mon coeur by Claire Keim sure makes excellent FS-material. She’s certainly not the first to sing Verlaine’s poem, many classical soprano’s did it before her, but it never sounded this sexy.

Claire Keim – Il pleure dans mon coeur
Camelia Jordana – Spleen

Marie-Pierre Arthur: Aux Alentours

  • Posted on 07/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Problem with Jan/ Feb releases is that they usually are forgotten by the end of the year. Not this one. We already fell in love with Québecoise singer Marie-Pierre Arthur after discovering her on Buck 65’s brilliant 20 Odd Years and her first, self-titled solo effort featuring the lovely folk-pop gem Pourquoi in 2009. Her brand new album, Aux Alentours, features finest eclectic fille pop all the way, combining shades of 70s glam rock, intricate touches of 80s dream pop and glimpses of retro attitude: Her voice encompasses the raw and the smooth perfectly, the tunes changing effortlessly between catchy melodies, gritty riffs and sweet, at times angelic moods. Marie-Pierre has claimed somewhere that originality does not exist, but proves herself wrong with almost every single song: Aux Alentours may start in Reference Alley, but heads straight to Reinvention Boulevard in that Grand State of the Art.

Marie-Pierre Arthur – Pour une fois
Marie-Pierre Arthur – Les infidèles

Buck 65 w/ Marie-Pierre Arthur – Final Approach

David Giguère

  • Posted on 06/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Last year was a French-Canadian fille fest, this year the guys put in some weight. Well, one guy, and David Giguère gets help from one of our alltime fave Quebecoises (Ariane Moffatt, who produced), from Fanny Bloom (who sings a too short duet) and Camille Poliquin as his choriste. Giguere, also known as an actor is Canada, made quite an impression with his first single L’Atelier. His debut album is a folktronic affair, with breezy melodies, heartfelt lyrics and modern soundscapes. His voice is a bit lazy, offbeat, a bit like fellow Canadians Damien Robitaille and Pierre Lapointe. At times, like in Madame M, the late Bashung springs to mind.
David Giguere – Madame M

Luciana Mello

  • Posted on 06/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Brazilian singer Luciana Mello recorded a French version of Serge Gainsbourg’s latinized ode to coffee-coloured beauties Couleur Café on her 6th album (called 6 Solo). In the video above you don’t see French singer Corneille, but he’s on the album version. Luciana comes from a musical family, her dad’s Brazilian funk pioneer Jair Rodrigues, her brother Jair Oliviera is a music producer. Not sure if Luciana recorded in French before, but this sure’s convincing.
Listen to more Luciana via Soundcloud.
(Merci to Under Paris blog for the tip)

Luciana Mello – Couleur Café

Anaïs

  • Posted on 05/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Quirky French singer Anaïs new single is a cover (see original version here), the first track from a new covers album. Though we love covers at FS, we’re also sceptical. The reason you didn’t find a post about the new Olivia Ruiz-EP is that her swing covers are average, not to say below average. And Olivia in English…I don’t know. On her upcoming album A l’eau de javel, Anaïs sings tracks by Edith Piaf, Rina Ketty and other 40s singers, whom she prefers over, say, Madonna and Mylene Farmer (good choice). I also heard a version of Tina Turner’s Private Dancer by Anaïs, but I sure hope that’s not on the album for it’s baaaaad. But this new single is very, very promising. And danceable.

Anais – Je n’embrasse pas les garçons

Le Groove Socialiste de Monsieur Krug

  • Posted on 30/01/2012
  • /Under Musique

Before ex-GDR superstar actor and chanteur Manfred Krug performed ultimately dreadful versions of old swing standards in Germany’s never-ending Tatort crime show, he was nothing less than the greatest soul man between Rostock and Karl-Marx-Stadt. With Ein Hauch von Frühling (1973) he transformed East German record label Amiga into Erich Honecker’s Motown for some serious moments. The éminence grise behind him was pianist and band leader Günther Fischer, who composed and arranged those intricate funky grooves that were tailor-made for Krug’s seemingly feeble tenor voice. Inbetween they explored some other genres, as on 74’s Greens, an international song collection featuring a sweeping version of Jean Lenoir’s all-time classic Parlez moi d’amour, originally penned for Lucienne Boyer in 1930.

Manfred Krug – Parlez moi d’amour

Extra: Sexy background singers and fat horn arrangements refine Krug’s 1973 socialist soul classic Komm und spiel mit mir (Come and Play With Me). Six years later, already in West Germany then, he fused melancholy and irony perfectly in Früh war der Tag erwacht (Dawn Arrived Early That Day) – the tune’s mood reminiscent of the late Dutch filmmuziek genius Rogier van Otterloo.

Manfred Krug – Komm und spiel mit mir
Manfred Krug – Früh war der Tag erwacht

Covers Deluxe: Hush

  • Posted on 28/01/2012
  • /Under Musique

This is not a Ritchie Blackmore tune. Hush was written by Joe South for Billy Joe Royal in 1967, and only the following year Deep Purple recorded the song that became quite a huge hit in the US. Gallic cover king Johnny Hallyday recorded a quite lame French version a few months later, while Montréal-based yé-yé chanteuse Jenny Rock transformed the harmless psych/ bluespop song with the pushy organ into a sexy rollercoaster ride, fast, breathless, and highly energetic – a nice example that some songs simply work better with female vocals. No surprise that Jenny, born Jeannine de Bellefeuille, had opened for the Rolling Stones in Montréal on 4/23/65. If legend is true, Keith threw Mick a pitiful look before telling him: „Dude, eat your heart out.“

Billy Joe Royal – Hush
Deep Purple – Hush

Johnny Hallyday – Mal
Jenny Rock – Mal

Extra: Beginning with bébé pop tunes like Fume ta cigarette in 1963, Jenny Rock later did dozens of French language adaptations of US hits, among them the rousing Seul (cover of The Shirelles’ Boys) with an almost Janis Joplin-like performance at the song’s end and the cute Au Go Go (cover of Cool Jerk by The Capitols).

Jenny Rock – Fume ta cigarette
Jenny Rock – Seul
Jenny Rock – Au Go Go

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