Le Pop 8
Hurrah! The new (eight) volume of über-cool French pop compilation Le Pop is out. ‘Le Pop is not so much about France as such, but about great music with lyrics which just happen to be in French, music by artists that can also, of course, come from Canada, Belgium, even England’, Le Pop-compilers Rolf and Oliver write in their introduction, explaining why there are no baguettes, Eiffel Towers or basque caps on the cover. ‘The secret of the chanson is how it uses the sound and rhythm of a language to offer up very special melodies’, they continue. And that’s certainly well executed on this volume.
It features chansons by FS-faves like Maissiat, Fredda, Benjamin Schoos featuring Laetitia Sadier and a brandspanking new track by Sammy Decoster (yay!).
A real discovery is Parisian singer Anna Jean, who records with Juniore. They sound like early Stereolab, which is never a bad thing to me. Le Pop 8 chose ‘Christine’, but I think Dans le noir is better song. Alas, that’s not on Bandcamp (but is on Spotify):
See the new video for Juniore’s La fin du monde HERE.
Also new to me is Liz de Lux. You might know her from an earlier Le Pop compilation, when one of her songs was covered by Olive & Moi. I really dig the Nancy Sinatra-influence on this new track. And have you spotted which iconic album cover they channel?
More on Le Pop 8 HERE.
Oh, and did you know that Le Pop branched out to selling lingerie?! Oh la la! HERE
Brigitte
The new Brigitte album is out!
Here are two brand new songs:
Pierre Faa/Peppermoon
Peppermoon‘s back in Holland, our Parisian friends play a few promotional gigs. Tomorrow, Friday November 14, they play RTV Rijnmond’s Live uit Lloyd. Saturday, they’re at Omroep Friesland, and later on at Dit Is Dit De Dag, to be broadcasted on Dutch Radio 1. This is because the album of both Peppermoon and Pierre Faa (Peppermoon’s principal song writer) are officially released on cd.
My guess is that they don’t bring Elisa Point along, to sing this nice track with Pierre:
Listen to Peppermoon most recent album via Spotify, HERE
De Duiven
Belgian band De Duiven pays hommage to the Melody Nelson-videos:
Je t’aime plus Paris
So, the new ZAZ album is out, featuring classic songs about the City of Light. Sous le ciel de paris, Le Parisienne and this superhit:
It’s a cool album, lots of manouche- and swing-influences, Quincy Jones (yes!) did a wonderful job producing, and Zaz shines.
All songs are from waaaay back, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but there are of course very good French songs written about Paris from the more recent past. Like these:
Do you know other, better, more recent French songs (not older than, say, 20 years) about Paris? I made a Spotify-list, you can add to that. Or in the comments below!
Radio France, vinyl and les artistes
Thanks to Kees-Jan for introducing me to this great Radio France talkshow about (the love for) vinyl, with various artists. Shows are subtitled in English!
See all episodes HERE
Stéphanie Lapointe
Montréal-based sirene Stéphanie Lapointe released a new album, that has the spirit of early Françoise Hardy and Jane Birkin written all over it. Which is a good thing. This is the first single: