OK, so the favela-funk in the post below didn’t go down very well, but how ’bout:
Video
Paris Blues
Dalida was the star, Gainsbourg the piano player. Lovely Italian-French collaboration from the completely forgotten »L’inconnue de Hongkong« (1963).
La Femme
Lo-fi lolita-surfpop heroes La Femme just released a new EP with four songs. Well, three new tracks and a rework of their underground hit ‘Sur la Planche’. The upbeat title track La Femme is sung by one of the various filles La Femme enlists to sing. A video is coming up too. According to this pic on their Facebook, it’s gonna look…different. The other songs are the Velvet Undergroundsy ‘Hypsoline’, with it’s unstable organ and tribal rhythm, that ends in a duet. There’s the bilingual ‘It’s Time To Wake Up’ that sounds like something Nini Raviolette forget to record back in the cold wave 80s. And a faster, streamlined version of Sur La Planche. It’s sleazy, it’s sexy, it’s good.
La Femme – La Femme
UPDATE:
And here’s that video, featuring La Femme and Hypsoline:
Are Girlfriends Electric?
Try to voice this name, and then try again: Evelyne Ranaivorarivony. According to Discogs, it’s the real name of Nini Raviolette, who released her one and only single in 1980: Suis-Je Normale?, a minimalist, freezoid stun-gun of a song that also opened 2004’s So Young But So Cold sampler. Now the song can be found again on Change the Beat, a brand new compilation celebrating the history of the legendary Celluloid label, still clinically cold, clinically disturbed, and still waiting for the right answer.
Nini Raviolette – Suis-Je Normale?
La Grande Sexy Sophie
Sexy Boy by Air, covered by La Grande Sophie plus strings. Ooh la la, there’s an intented pun. This cover’s from a just released EP by LGS, featuring a couple of her own songs with said string section, plus this cover. Not the first time Sexy Boy’s been redone. Apart from the almost obligatory Top 40 coverband variations (Vitamin String Quartet et al), there are a few unusual, yet good covers. A guitaristic one by Franz Ferdinand, one by youth choir Scala and an offbeat Bertrand Burgalat-reprise.
La Grande Sophie – Sexy Boy
Bertrand Burgalat – Sexy Boy
Franz Ferdinand – Sexy Boy
Scala – Sexy Boy
And 99 pink bubble bath sets for the most girlish version go to:
Lafayette + Liza Manili video
Free Jupiter remix:
C’est Chouette 2012 Yearlist (7)
Doubtless there have been more captivating years in French music, and actually, it was more a year of single songs than of entire albums. It was a sexy landscape anyway, full of signs and wonders, and populated by so many people finding their voice. Maybe for you as well.
10. Raphaël, Super-Welter. Raphaël’s Chanson pour Patrick Dewaere is one of the most heartbreaking French songs ever. It’s not on this album which obviously deals with his new faible for boxing. Now he sounds like the missing link between Lou Reed, Bowie and Bashung.
09. Françoise Hardy, L’amour Fou. Always hated her nice girl schlager attitude. She was so much older then, she’s younger than that now.
Françoise Hardy – Rendez-vous dans une autre vie
08. Olivier Bloch-Lainé, Mercredi. I listened to this one about a year ago for the first time, at Vaea’s flat in the Marais, and it has never left me since. Fuck 2012. It’s 1976, so ultra-tender like it’s never gonna be again.
07. La Femme, Paris 2012. Surfin’ the asphalt jungle, riotous, juvenile and way cool. Along with Mathieu Boogaert’s Avant que je m’ennuie and Sebastien Tellier’s Cochon Ville video of the year: Say au revoir to the Eiffel Tower.
06. Dionysos, Bird’n’Roll. Mathieu Malzieu doing the Phantom of the Time Warp Picture Show, rollercoaster sonique style, and of course the French never understood what rock’n’roll is about (me neither). The right approach for a grand spectacle.
05. Juliette Gréco, Ca se traverse est c’est beau … Direction liberté. A saint who hasn’t forgotten about la revolution. Adult cinéma including the finest hommage to proto-surrealist poet Guillaume Apollinaire ever written.
Juliette Gréco – Mirabeau sous le pont
04. Daphne, Treize chansons de Barbara. Norman Lebrecht once stated that French chanson legend Barbara was »all about the unsaid«. Daphne’s album is nothing less than a highly intimate approach to the spirit of the animal triste.
03. The Limiñanas – Crystal Anis. From Perpignan, Dept. Pyrénées-Orientales: The Limiñanas (see album cover above) throw Morricone, Gainsbourg and Fabienne Delsol in the garage blender and shake it, psychedelic sex groove style. Cool as shit, and featuring the sharpest fuzz guitar around.
02. Bertrand Burgalat – Toutes directions. Maybe BB follows one or two routes too many, but the ride includes Bardot’s Dance, an extremely infectious 70s style electro/ disco sweeper, as well as the irresistible Sous les colombes de granit, easily qualifying as one of the premier chansons of the year.
Bertrand Burgalat – Sous les colombes de granit
01. Marie-Pierre Arthur – Aux Alentours. Catchy melodies, gritty riffs and sweet, at times angelic moods. Aux Alentours is a revelation, starting in Reference Alley, but heading straight to Reinvention Boulevard in that Grand State of the Art.
Marie-Pierre Arthur – Chacun pour toi
See you in 2013.
Sky
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!
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