Fredda
Some filles take long times between albums. Not our Fredda. She is very dedicated when it comes to new albums. Almost every year she serves us with a new one. In 2007 she released “Toutes mes aventures” and in 2009 “Marshmallow Paradise“.
There were also two sixties cocktail albums as Radiomatic together with Pascale Parisot, in 2006 and 2010).
and now there is “L’Ancolie” (Columbine in English). I haven’t heard or read much about it and that is a pity, to be honest. Because it is a wonderful, melancholic album. On this new album she works closely together with Pascale Parisot, Bastien Lallemant and Filles Sourires’ own Marianne Dissard.
Here is the video of the title track “l’Ancolie“. This is the video for “Il ne me reste”.
On the albumm there are two songs co-written by Marianne: “Journal Intime” and the first track of the album “Morin Heights”. Since that is an ode to the place where the album is conceived I’ll bring it to you here:
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger versions
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger is probably the best known track by French dance-duo Daft Punk. That’s because it was sampled, covered and Youtube’d (if that’s a word) the most. A few weeks back, I heard the new, very good album by Philippe Uminski. I had heard of him before, as a songwriter (for La Grande Sophie, Calogero and more), I didn’t know that he made an album as Uminski with a garage rockin’ cover of HBFS. Which triggered me to search for more covers. I didn’t find any as good and radical as Uminski’s, but they’re nice nonetheless. I also found a solid cover of Cola Bottle Baby by Edwin Birdsong, the sample-source of HBFS. Of course, Kanye West’s rework is present as well. Enjoy. And dance!
Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Matt Mulholland – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Mike Tompkins – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Uminski – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Wilt Ribeiro – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Kanye West – Stronger
Edwin Birdsong – Cola Bottle Baby
Baker Brothers – Cola Bottle Baby
Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Matt Mulholland – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Mike Tompkins – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Uminski – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Wilt Ribeiro – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Kanye West – Stronger
Edwin Birdsong – Cola Bottle Baby
Baker Brothers – Cola Bottle Baby
Liza Manili
Actress slash singer Liza Manili released her debut album this week. There’s a heavy Lio-influence in her songs, which is nice. Shame tho that all the five songs from her earlier EP are also on the 11-track album. ith a voice like hers, we need as much new stuff we can get! Se Revoir is my fave on her self-titled album, lots of sighs, mid-tempo beat, happy-to-be-sad atmosphere and off-key synths – all good! More on Liza here, and here. Found this trailer with Liza online. Not exactly Oscar-winning material, I’d say.
Liza Manili – Se revoir
Camille covers Johnny Hallyday
Out of the blue, French vocal-wonder Camille covers a Johnny Hallyday-classic. On her site, she writes: “Que j’aime chanter Que je t’aime ! Bijou érotique. Eclipse de soleil. Où se mêlent l’ombre et la lumière, le Yin et le Yang, la puissance et l’infinie délicatesse, Johnny Hallyday et son contraire.” It’s in the style of Camille’s most recent album, Ilo Veyou. So less bombastic then the original. I thought the song was covered more, but a part from a Dutch duo (cough) and a few lesser known French names, I didn’t find a lot. Camille did a great job, her version is sure a lot more erotic then Hallyday’s. Unless, a long haired, sweaty old guy is your fave fetish, of course.
Camille – Que je t’aime
Johnny Hallyday – Que je t’aime
New dEUS single (in French)
A very Gainsbourgian new single by Flemish alt.rockers dEUS. Singer Tom Barman re-did Serge’s Le poinçonneur earlier really, really well.
Melody Gardot
Edith Piaf did (co-)write La Vie en Rose, she wasn’t the first one to record the song. Wikipedia tells us originally, the song was registered as being written by Louis ‘Louiguy’ Guglielmi, since at the time Piaf did not have necessary qualifications to be able to copyright her work with SACEM. In 1945, Piaf’s friend Marianne Michel gave it a first try, for Piaf wasn’t sure it would fit in her repertoire. But from the first time she did sang the chanson, it became her signature song. La Vie en Rose was covered many, many times. Louis Armstrong (love his version), Dean Martin, Madeleine Peyroux, Aretha Franklin, Grace Jones, the list goes on.
And now American jazz singer Melody Gardot covered it, on her most recent album The Absence (a music magazine joked that the title refers to the lack of clothing on the album cover). Melody spices it up, sings it like it’s a booty call. Hard to ignore, judging from that album cover.
Melody Gardot – La vie en rose
Freedom Fry
The equation is simple – One French girl + one American guy = the band Freedom Fry. To be more exact, the duo is that of Parisian born Marie Seyrat and New York City’s Bruce Driscoll. So far, they made two EPs and a single with folksy tracks, sometimes with electronics added. Marie’s voice reminds me of Inara George’s. Most FF-songs are in English but Marie occassionally sings in French too. Like on the duo’s charming cover of Serge & Brigitte’s Bonnie & Clyde – listen to what they did with those wa-hoo-ha-hoo-hoo’s from the original. Find more Freedom Fry tracks on Bandcamp or Soundcloud.
La Mer electronique
Charles Trenet’s immortal La Mer (aka Beyond the Sea) was covered by electronic duo Andromakers. Lucille & Nadege from Aix-en-Provence, whose other work (not only in French) you can hear here.