Senden Daha Güzel by Duman is a certified Turkish rock classic (93 million streams on Spotify, tons of coverversions on YouTube). It’s a very dedicated love song, and French singer Melanie Pain (who performed with Nouvelle Vague in Turkey several times) made a cool cover. In Turkish, and in French.
Two recent Anais MVA singles that I missed, sexy slabs of modern pop:
New Pomme single. Needs to be on this blog:
When François Marry, driving force behind François & The Atlas Mountains, was in preparation of the Âge Fleuve album, he listened to a lot of river-themed songs. Like Take Me To The River by Talking Heads (or better, Al Green) and La Rivière by Olivier Marguerit. The one river-song that stood out, was River Man by tragic folkhero Nick Drake, he writes on instagram. I’m always envious of people who haven’t heard of Nick, for discovering his music, his legacy, is such a bittersweet joy (he died very young, alas, but he made at least three albums that are masterpieces).
Longstoryshort: François translated River Man to French, and asked singer Yasmine Hamdan to join him on his wonderful rework.
If you want more River Man-covers, I made a playlist with over 4 hours of versions.
It’s pop, sure. It has a firm beat. But it also has that voice. Charlotte Cardin delivers yet another very strong song, that makes you jump up & dance, and cry. Sad banger, anyone?
Gorgeous, intense live version of De doute et de joie by Célia Kameni. A singer of Cameroonian origin, who sang with all kinds of artists and has had a musical upbringing that made her familiar with anything between opera and jazz. Read more on Célia (in English) here. This is a track from her recently released EP, the only French track. She has an incredible, rich voice that aims for the heartstrings.
I heard of her first thanks to Italian groove collective Nu Genea:
She’s also the singer in this laidback track:
She already released a song called Luna, and now there’s the very laidback and sunny (!) song called La Lune. More proof that Coline BLF is one of the most interesting new voices in French pop:
Nantes-based trio Simone d’Opale release an EP in September, which I’m looking forward to. The singles they released so far are very interesting; singer Manon Claude has that fine sultry voice I love, they used old synth sounds and are not afraid to space out. Sultry synthetic space sounds. Cool motto. Check for instance this dreamy track:
More recent is the even fiercer Belle Journée, that starts like a Kraftwerk-track, and gets more psych along the way:
Canadien songstress Carla Chanelle released a song called Juillet a month ago, of course. I missed it then, but in August, and likely beyond, this song works too. It’s breezy, sultry and has an wonderful bassline ( basslines are my thing, yes). It has a nice westcoast-70s vibe. If you’re into the yachty side of Marie-Pierre Arthur, this is for you.
The lyrics are about doubts, wanting to break out of something (a relationship?) but not feeling comfortable enough to push through. Or, I was musing when I heard the song, it’s about wanting to do something deep & meaningful in summer. But, yeah, summer just gets in the way.