A new Emily Loizeau album! In September! Check out the rural preview
In other news: If you have a Facebook-account, you can listen to Berry’s new album here. And if you don’t have an FB-account, try the title track:
Berry – Les passagers
Dionysos, Joann Sfar
Great video that cartoonist/Serge Gainsbourg biopic-director Joann Sfar made for Dionysos:
Liza Manili
VERY charming, that clip of former model, actress and singer Liza Manili. That smile, that hairstyle, those lips, that voice – oh la la. But somehow I didn’t keep up with the news. Liza made very good EP, released more charming videos, and on June 4th her first proper album is released. The Strasbourg-born beauty, who also plays in a couple Revolver-clips and a Kyo-video, channels early Lio, via Jeanne Cherhal and Emily Loizeau. She duetted with Séverin, and was one of the singers on the Dr Tom project. Yearlist material, you people ask? Who knows. Looks good, tho.
Liza Manili – L’eclipse
Liza Manili & Séverin – Les restes
Liza Manili – Le verdict
Great Lake Dancers
Some people have sex in unusual places. Tony Dekker, mastermind behind Canadian country folksters Great Lake Swimmers, makes music in such locations, trying to capture their energy and acoustics – churches, subway stations, castles, tiny islands named Just Room Enough or, well, a grain silo. That’s probably why Tony’s music is about as sexy as Hank Williams’ clothbrush. It’s tender though, calm and serene, alternative country all the ruggedly sensitive way. In that sense, The Great Lake Swimmers’ recent album New Wild Everywhere is surely neither new nor wild, but a respectable one, recorded for the first time in a real studio, featuring even a French language tune reminiscent of the great Iowan songwriter Greg Brown, and commemorative of those times when dancing was different in Ontario. Mind a little country waltz?
Great Lake Swimmers – Les Champs de Progéniture
Julia Stone & Benjamin Biolay
Honey-voiced Australian singer Julia Stone teamed up with French hero Benjamin Biolay for the first single off of her new sophomore album, By The Horns. A rework of Julia’s single Let’s forget all the things that we say. The album, by the way, also features a cover of The National’s Bloodbuzz Ohio. Album’s out in May, this single is, as far as I know, only available in France.
Julia Stone & Benjamin Biolay – Let’s forget
Becky & Serge Go Motown
Liverpoolian babe Rebecca Ferguson came second to some painter dude on British casting couch show X-Factor in 2011. She sang Chris Isaac’s Wicked Game then, he crooned Amy Winehouse and Roberta Flack. They must have swapped the songs inadvertently, since Becky Ferguson’s debut album Heaven is unmistakably another one in the Retro Soul Mixed With Dusty, Randy, Macy, Tracy, Amy & Adele Vein. With a difference. Although with the help of Adele collaborator Eg White, her songs are mostly self-written, and okay ones. The most remarkable one might be Mr. Bright Eyes, sounding for a few elusive déja-vu moments like Serge G. had once been a contract writer for Berry Gordy. But come to think of postmodernism and intertextuality: Probably Serge had listened to some Motown records back in 1967, too.
Rebecca Ferguson – Mr. Bright Eyes
Sébastien Tellier video (NSFW)
Probably the best video you’ll see all year.
Anna, Charlotte
‘Anna’ is the new single by Charlotte Gainsbourg (who’s coming to my hometown! Whoo!), with remixes by Moonlight Matters, Clock Opera and, posted here, a very FS-friendly, floating version by Tom Furse.
This is a very nice rework of Paradisco.
Charlotte Gainsbourg – Anna (Tom Furse remix)
Amylie, Carlotti
We don’t overuse the expression ‘yearlist material, people’ on this blog, yet were not afraid to use it either. This year, Fanny Bloom got tapped, and now I’m adding Barbara Carlotti’s L’Amour L’Argent Le Vent and Amylie’s Le Royaume to that Indispensable-list. Quebecoise Amylie released her sophomore cd, it’s richer in sound (orchestral, if you like) than her extraordinary debut, but there are heavy beats too, like in Comme un reine. Amylie flirts with classic chanson the same way Coeur de Pirate did on her second album, but updates it. Overall, the atmosphere is upbeat, her voice is strong, serene and sexy, and rockabilly workout Les Filles deserves to be a big summer hit.
Carlotti is a little more seasoned, L’Amour… is her third album, and less girlie then Amylie’s. The atmosphere reminds me of Air’s first EP (that’s meant as a compliment), her lyrics are based on literature, her travels to Brazil and India made an impression and she revisits the music she listened to as a 14-year old (Kraftwerk, Lio, Daho) on the track Quatorze ans. It’s less folky than earlier stuff, but as gentle and breezy. Love her duet with Philippe Katerine as well.
Both albums sound elegant, detailed and classy. Did I mention that they’re both yearlist material, people?
Barbara Carlotti – J’ai changé
Amylie – Bouche coucuse