Musique

Joyeux Noel (1969 Slight Return)

  • Posted on 24/12/2010
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Today, you buy the New Yorker, GQ, or Entertainment Weekly, but once upon a time, you had those poptastic magazines in which you found great stories by, let’s say, Romain Gary, Henry Miller, Alain Robbe-Grillet, or William Faulkner alongside with cool, though not too glossy shots of the most beautiful women of the world – of course naked, but nobody called it sexist then. Those were the Seventies, and actually, I once worked for LUI, cranking out literary reviews in my small bureau until my senior editor showed up in the evening to take me to those risqué parties on the second floor where I met some of the gals from the photo sessions … and, knowing that they were doing their job exclusively for the advancement of culture, they listened to us breathlessly while we were quoting from Verlaine and Mallarmé poems. Just a few years earlier, in December 1969, LUI even had had Jane on the cover, today still a perfect pic for Boxing Day. And while you’re watching, you might even be in for a little sermon by Cardinal Katerine.

Katerine – Jesus Christ Mon Amour

Rosi Golan

  • Posted on 23/12/2010
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Rosi Golan is an Israeli singer who made a pretty album in 2008, in a Zooey Deschanel/Ingrid Michaelson-style. Sweet ‘n sunny songs with a 60s influence, very easy on the ears. One song had a few French lines. For this commercial for Stella Artois, she sang a French version of Twelve Days of Christmas. You can download it for free (no catch) HERE.

Chansons de noël

  • Posted on 22/12/2010
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99 Presents (but a bitch ain’t one). Great pun title for a Christmas record, English quartet The Bobby McGee’s brought it to life. I’m the first to admit that their cover of Les Poppys ‘Non, non rien n’a changé’ (for that’s what it is) was a bit of a let down. I’d love to hear Jay-Z’s 99 Problems reworked. Maybe next year. Devon Press recorded a cover of Tino Rossi’s Petit Papa Noël for the Christmasagogo-blog. He remixed it, and I decided to put her very charming version of France’s best known seasonal track up on FS.

Bobby McGee’s – 99 Presents (but a bitch ain’t one)
Devon Press – Petit Papa Noël

Mayra Andrade

  • Posted on 20/12/2010
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The Sunday Times called her „voice from Cape Verde“, possibly due to the fact that Mayra Andrade sings a lot of songs in Cape Verdean Creole, though she’s born in Cuba and grew up in Senegal, Angola, and Germany. Her records smell a bit of the well-designed eau de toilette of all those other industry working girls mixing world music with those certain hints of Brazilian folklore, body lotion fado, and authentic leather sofa jazz/ethno feel that probably will earn her a guest job on Charlie Haden’s next „Sophisticated Ladies“ volume. She’s got taste anyway: Her new live album, Studio 105, features also Serge’s La Javanaise, written originally for Juliette Gréco in 1959, in a kind of worn-out sugardaddy’s club version, definitely not as intimate as it tries to be, but actually quite a winning one.

Mayra Andrade – La Javanaise

Fay Lovsky

  • Posted on 20/12/2010
  • /Under Musique

Everyone dreams about writing a classic Christmas song, very few achieve this goal. Multi-instrumentalist, theremin-enthusiast and singer Fay Lovsky wrote her claim to fame in 1981. Since then, Christmas was a Friend of Mine is on the radio every season. It has the bells, the nostalgic atmosphere and the lyrics about friendship that all good Christmas songs have. For the compilation A Catchy Christmas, she recorded an updated French version. Which is nice. You can buy and/or listen to A Catchy Christmas HERE.

Fay Lovsky – Noël quand on est petit

Sylvie Vartan

  • Posted on 16/12/2010
  • /Under Musique

Legendary ye-ye singer Sylvie Vartan returns with a very strong album, produced by Keren Ann & Doriand, who also wrote a couple of songs. Others who contributed are Benjamin Biolay (La Vanité, great song), David Hallyday (her son), La Grande Sophie and Etienne Daho. The production is very sixties, with plush keys, loads of strings and guitars drowning in echo. Duet-partners are Doriand, Julien Doré and Arthur H. Vartan isn’t the world’s best singer anymore – then again, she never was. This album is way better than the rehashes on Nouvele Vague.  See the duet with Doré  here. Read an English interview with Sylvie here.

Sylvie Vartan & Doriand – Je me détacherai

FS Rerun: Sarah Nixey

  • Posted on 15/12/2010
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Though Sarah Nixey is British, she’s a fille to boot, levitating effortlessly between the realms of innocence and lasciviousness, the subversive and the sublime. With Black Box Recorder – assisted by Luke Haines of Auteurs fame and John Moore, ex-Jesus & Marychain –, she recorded three of the smartest, though too much neglected pop CDs of the last decade. French Rock’n’Roll from Recorder’s brilliant second record Facts of Life echoes the spirit of Jane & Serge, London-style, and features even a few lines in French:

Black Box Recorder – French Rock’n’Roll

Solo, Sarah also did a trippy club cover of Francoise Hardy’s hit Le temps de l’amour, written by Hardy’s future husband Jacques Dutronc in 1962, and Ici avec toi, a gauloised-up translation of her original song When I’m Here With You.

Sarah Nixey – Le temps de l’amour

Sarah Nixey – Ici avec toi

Last not least, another of Sarah’s French connections from the compilation The Worst of Black Box Recorder: Her version of Terry Jacks’ weeper superhit Seasons of the Sun – cover of Jacques Brel’s classic chanson Le Moribond – reverberating an entirely different quality: the dizzy state when awakening from a already half-forgotten dream.

Black Box Recorder – Seasons in the Sun

Yearlists (6)

  • Posted on 15/12/2010
  • /Under Musique

Indispensable musique-pusher FransS, reader/contributor Anna Maria and FS-fan David send in yearlists as well. Three songs at the bottom of this post. Here goes:

FransS:
What a strange year it was. No one really stood out, but a lot of very good albums. as can be seen in the other lists. It was hard to make a top 5. a top 10 would be much easier. So my excuses To Babet, Brune, Buridane, Camelia, Chloe, Emmanuelle, Laurence, Marianne and many others.

1. Élodie Frégé – La fille d’après-midi. OK, but if you insist that I choose a female album of the year, there is only one possible winner: Elodie. Great album and great songs that take you by the hand and that lead you to where Elodie wants us to go. [the bedroom, I’d hope – Gbourg]
2. Zaz – Zaz. It is poppy, but giving the airplay she had here in Holland we finally had a contemporary French artist on the radio and Je veux more or less became the soundtrack of summer.
3. Cécile Hercule – La tête à l’envers. The real FF fans still remember her from her EP from 2008. We all knew she was an exceptional talent in the FF tradition. And as we all hoped and expected: she didn’t disappoint us..
4. Marie Warnant – Ritournelle. For me one of the surprises. Because I didn’t want her to be missed in the yearlist, she’s included here.
5. Claudine Muno & The Luna Boots – Noctambul. Luxembourg’s best kept secret.. I don’t know why exactly but I played her album a lot this year…It suits a lot of occasions. It just makes you feel good.
—
Anna Maria
Sorry, only four Filles-albums:

1. Emmanuelle Seigner – Dingue. Lovely, and relaxed songs with delightful vocals. Bonus points for the Iggy Pop duet.
2. Zaz – Zaz. Cool and worldly sophistication and class. She has a gorgeous voice too.
3. Peau – Premiere mue. Fragile and sweet, yet strong enough to make an impact.
4. Marie-Amélie – Dans un vertige, Sister of Emmanuelle and clearly her own person too. Lovely album.

—
David:

1. Babet – Piano Monstre. I am very grateful this blog put me onto Babet, definitely my favorite album of the year. La chambre des toujours, I think is the prettiest song I’ve heard, with a simple, heartfelt melody that Babet sings in such a gentle, simple way.
2. Chantal Archambault – La romance des couteaux. Her music is a mix of folk/country/rock – Chantal has a voice with a distinctive edge to it that helps drive her songs, similar in this respect to Olivia Ruiz and Emily Loizeau, with an energy that grows on you.
3. Nolwenn Leroy – Bretonne. In her past albums, I’ve found her voice to be pretty, but without much by way of expression. Here, her voice is perhaps a bit less pure, but I feel like her music is hitting something more real, with a bit of passion. Bro Gozh Va Zadou in particular captures this difference.
4. In-grid – Passion. Lots of movement, with obviously a conscious effort to evoke a ’40’s “big band” feel. A Ma Façon or Papillon Sur Moi, for example, where filles fragiles meets Desi Arnaz with a bit of rock thrown in.
5. Lili-ster – Castafiore. This has a bunch of good tunes, in particular Electric boy and Tombe sur moi. The album has a nice flow to it – I find I can put the album on and listen to it straight through.

Chantal Archambault – La chasse
Marie Warnant – Ritournelle
Peau – Sensuelle

Gillian Hills

  • Posted on 15/12/2010
  • /Under Musique

La tête à l’envers by 60’s ye-ye legend Gillian Hills is labeled ‘non-seasonal’, ’cause it’s not about Christmas. But the giggly lyrics are set to Jingle Bell Rock, therefore it IS a seasonal track in my book. And on dark days like this, it’s always a pleasure to hear and watch the bubbly blonde, innit?

Gillian Hills – La tete a l’envers

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