Camille’s mocking the Edith Piaf-singing style on her new album, Ilo Veyou. In a song in which she sings France is recycling it’s past like a photocopier. On paper it’s quite funny. When you actually hear the song, it’s funny too. One time. Easily one of the most anticipated new albums this year, Camille’s fourth album is a tad disappointing. Yes, there’s vocal trickery (Bubble Lady, about her pregnancy, and the child choir in Allez Allez Allez), but there are ‘normal’ songs as well. Sung in English and French. Some almost sound 17th Century, like Message. She Was sounds like a leftover from Feist’s latest album. Most of the time, the music is very basic: guitar, strings, voice. This works beautifully in Le Berger and Le Banquet. The title track, with it’s upright bass and vocal workout, is a flashback to Music Hole. I saw her on the Music Hole tour, and was blown away by the performance, the vocals, the percussion, her charisma. I still cherish this as one of the best concerts I ever saw. But now, when I hear her gasp, puff and sigh in Tout dit or Ilo Veyou, it’s kind of annoying. Yes, the girl can sing. Yes, she can do whatever she wants with her voice. But write good, solid songs, like Les Ex from her debut, or Au Port from Le Fil, that seems harder and harder for Camille.
Read an English interview with Camille here. And here.
Camille – La France
Françoise Hardy’s piano in Voilà, combined with eerie, dark rockabilly. Now there’s a treat. The guy responsible for the mix is Alex Zhang Hungtai (aka Dirty Beaches), a Taiwan-born Canadian immigrant who spent a good chunk of his life feeling unmoored and adrift. He loves David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, Wong Kar Wai and the music of Johnny Cash and The Stooges (he covered them both). Dirty Beaches’ album was released in March, but Jan Kooi told me about Lord Knows Best, with the Hardy-sample. This video merges images of Hardy and Hungtai. In the same vein was the use of Chantal Goya in a track by Wild Nothing.
