Yearlist 2010 (2) by Maks

  • Posted on 11/12/2010
  • /Under Musique

Didn’t listen to the guys that much to have an opinion, so I’ll stick to les filles:

1. Cécile Hercule – La Tête A L’Envers. The way we like them most. Clever and catchy songs, larded with an innocent and bright voice that is decorated with thorned roses, she got perfidious close to perfection. (Video)
2. Emmanuelle Seigner – Dingue. All good things last a little longer. Dingue, meant to be released in 2009, but postponed ’till januari 2010 was worth the wait. Postponed because of Seigner’s husband Roman Polanski’s rape-trial. Remarkable track on this album ‘Qui êtes-vous ?’, together with Polanski. The complete pop-album. Fresh, diverse and veiled, sensual and strong, charming but keen. Just like her. (Video)
3. Élodie Frégé – La Fille De L’après Midi. Like grinding a diamond. ‘La Fille De L’après Midi’ slowly reveals more and more of its beauty each time you listen to it.
4. Lafille – Tout Attaché(e). Who said French girls don’t rock? Merde!
5. Nouvelle Vague – Couleurs sur Paris. Masters of the reprise. But the trick keeps working over and over again, so why bother. This time Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux get the best out of filles like Mélanie Pain, Vanessa Paradis, Camille and FS-bunny Coralie Clément. Which guy wouldn’t be jealous of that? (Video)

Yearlist 2010 (1) by Guuzbourg

We’re making a list, we’re checking it twice (or more), and then we have the best French-language albums of the year. I asked you to send me lists too, and I will post them the upcoming days. Maks and Sky will post their own lists.

Les filles:
1. Elodie Frégé – La fille d’après-midi. I saw Elodie acting in Ozon’s new movie Potiche, playing the young version of Catherine Deneuve’s character and seducing a lawyer in her tight black dress, black stockings and suspenders. She doesn’t speak in the film, but with all that beauty, that isn’t really necessary. But when she does use her voice, redheaded beauty Elodie is even more seductive. See the grand video for the title track of her third album. Listen to her songs about an affair to remember. The memory lasts a lifetime.
2. Lafille -Toute Attaché(e). An album for the yearlists, I predicted in May. And surely it popped up in several lists. With gothic undertones, a healthy Gainsbourg-obsession, two phenomenal closing tracks, a husky voice and one English track that I still don’t like (though I’m a minority), Lafille was the revelation of 2010. See an acoustic session here.
3. ZAZ -ZAZ. Streetwise singer who’s heavily influenced by Piaf and Reinhardt, thus proving that classic chanson still works if you really put your heart ‘n soul in it. See Je veux.
4. Katel – Décorum. Gothrocking fille taking it all up to eleven. Décorum is the best album Mylene Farmer never made. Katel’s duet with Jeanne Cherhal beats any song on Cherhal’s own album. See the title track here.
5. Babet – Piano Monstre. I feel butterflies in my belly when Elizabeth Maistre sings. Sunny, highly imaginative songs. She should refrain from singing in English, but I’m of the forgiving kind. See Je pense à nous here.

Les hommes.
1. Bertrand Belin – Hypernuit. No competition. Delicately beautiful. Video.
2. Bastien Lallemant – Le verger. Sex, death, revenge, cruelty to children, with added desert dust. See here.
3. Robin Leduc – Hors-pistes. Very versatile (folk, afrobeat, rock), very good. One of the best songs I heard all year is this.
4. Karkwa – Les chemins de verre. Criminally neglected outside Canada, Karkwa gives Radiohead a run for their money. Video.
5. Ben L’Oncle Soul – Ben L’Oncle Soul. Cheating just a little, ’cause not all songs are in French. Still, this is how Otis would’ve sounded, had he been from Tours. Great session here.

Le Pop 6

  • Posted on 11/12/2010
  • /Under Musique

Though Messieurs Oliver Fröschke and Rolf Witteler operate from Cologne’s Quartier Belge, they have an avid schtick for music from France. True heroes, the German slacker impresarios were among the very first to discover the charm of the Nouvelle Scène Francaise in 2002 – the first Le Pop compilation (featuring Burgalat, Keren Ann and Benjamin B.) was nothing less than a revelation and sold a felt one million copies in my neighborhood. Eight years and four follow-ups later, Le Pop 6 maybe doesn’t contain the same sense of wonder, but a bag of goodies all the way, featuring premier stuff like Tom Poisson’s countryfied „Trapéziste“, Marianne Dissard’s slowly building groove-fest „The One and Only“, and my favorite, Toma’s „Je bois la mer“, a solemn recapturing of old school electronica, and a splendid love song.

Toma – Je bois la mer

Eux Autres

  • Posted on 08/12/2010
  • /Under Musique

Eux Autres are a loud, indie-rocking trio (Heather, Nicholas, Yoshi) from Portland, Oregan who are very influenced by French ye-ye. Their new album Broken Bow is just out, and features one great French track, Jamais. On earlier albums, they did a wonderful version of the Salut les Copains-theme, among other French songs. Though they mainly sing in English. From their bio: “Eux Autres write compact songs with sparse instrumentation. Their music has been unfairly described as “fun.” But while the surface of the songs might seem nonchalant, the lyrics offer skewed observations and fierce barbs. Most of their songs are about a) military history b) being “done wrong” or c) sports. Sadly, Eux Autres are the only people who notice this. The band sounds like the unrequited love song Doug Martsch would have penned for Francoise Hardy, had the time/space continuum conveniently collapsed.”
They also do Christmas-songs, see the videos for those here. EA were featured on the old FS blog, here. Picture stolen from here.

Eux Autres – Jamais

La Féline

  • Posted on 07/12/2010
  • /Under Musique

La Féline is a French trio, led by singer Agnes Gayraud, that won the2009 edition of the En français dans le text-bandcontest from Discograph Records. They had strong competition (from Maelis, for instance). The video for their great song Mystery Train (an English title, but sung in French) was just released.  La Féline released four EP’s so far. The bandcontest for this year is already in it’s final stage. This contestant sounds and looks good. And I like the voice of this girl.

La Féline – Mystery train

Royksopp goes Jarre

  • Posted on 07/12/2010
  • /Under Musique

Norwegian electronica-duo Röyksopp made a free downloadable cover of that beautiful Cantique de Noël Christmas classic. It sounds like Jean-Michel Jarre making a soft-porn soundtrack, your room will get an orange glow instantly and your carpet will look very shagable. Go HERE to download.

Noir Désir (2)

  • Posted on 03/12/2010
  • /Under Musique

Guestpost by Roger Grund on Noir Désir, in remembrance of one of France’s greatest bands:

French Rock sometimes suffers from lack of identity, however most definitely not in the case of Noir Désir. Loosely fit and jazzy, Noir Désir’s music evolved in the sun-scorched afternoons of the south of France rather than in the cold and damp mornings of Northern Europe: A ton étoile is the Rock-equivalent of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings.

I first heard A ton étoile by Noir Désir whilst in transit in the Sahara in the nineties, when a southernly wind carried a weak televised TV5 signal from across the Mediterranean. What stood out on the decripit TV in the caravanserai was a loud and broadly brushed guitar sound that has remained an enigma ever since. Carried by the unique guitar phrasing, there is the emotional voice of the singer, whose name is Bertrand Cantat, about whom we learned much more later on.

Sous la lumière en plein
et dans l’ombre en silence
si tu cherches un abri
Inaccessible
Dis toi qu’il n’est pas loin et qu’on y brille
A ton étoile

Noir Désir – A ton étoile
Noir Désir – A ton étoile (Yann TIersen remix)

Noir Desir

  • Posted on 02/12/2010
  • /Under Musique

Noir Désir called it quits, due to “emotional, human and musical differences”. You could see this coming from a few miles, after leadsinger Bertrand Cantat was released from prison after his conviction for murder. Heated debates in France after Cantat and his compadres left off where they were forced to quit six years before. Which leaves us with a lot of very good albums, Des visages des figures being the most succesful outside of France. There are quite a few ND-covers (this one, f.i.), but I’m posting only the Le vent nous portera-versions here, mostly done by girls. Sophie Hunger is from Switzerland, Victoria Vox from the US, Regina Lund was born in Finland but lives in Sweden, Les Charbonniers de L’Enfer are Canadian. The remix of Le vent… was made by Rubber Room.

Noir Désir – Le vent nous portera
Noir Désir – Le vent nous portera (remix)
Sophie Hunger – Le vent nous portera
Les Charbonniers de l’enfer – Le vent nous portera
Regina Lund – Le vent nous portera
Victoria Vox – Le vent nous portera

C’est chic

  • Posted on 01/12/2010
  • /Under Musique

Looking for the Perfect Christmas Gift? C’est Chic!, a wonderful compilation on the reliable Ace/Kent reissue label. It features ’24 hand-picked gems form France, epicenter of the 1960s yé-yé-girl phenomenon’. A few hits, like Anna Karina’s Roller Girl and France Gall’s Laisse tomber les filles, but a lot of fairly obscure gems indeed. Like Michèle Torr’s Non, à tous les garçons. A song written by Serge Gainsbourg. Or the baroque Je ne sais pas ce que je veux (a cover by sixties-band Nirvana,reworked by Hardy herself). A thick booklet with great info (main informant: Graham from the excellent Ready Steady Girls) comes along with it. This is no cd you’d want to download, this is one you want to own. And I’m not saying that ’cause this blog is mentioned as a reference source. A nice surprise.

Françoise Hardy – Je ne sais ce que je veux
Nirvana – Tiny Goddess
Michèle Torr – Non, à tous les garçons

UPDATE: FS-visitor Teyo mentioned in the comments that Andreas Dorau sampled the Hardy-track. For a wonderful song, I might add.
Andreas Dorau – Allein im Park

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