Nicolas Michaux, singer of the band Eté 67 (you might remember that band from the Musique Fantastique compilation) made a solo single. The video is funny and clever. Go to Bandcamp.
Christine & the Queens
Chaleur Humaine, the first album by Christine & the Queens (real name Heloise Letissier) was released last week. It generated more attention than I’d expect – even The Guardian weighed in with a profile, quoting from several French newspapers. Like this one: ‘When an interviewer from Le Monde recently compared her to Canadian-born French star Mylène Farmer, Letissier was not impressed either. “No, she is sex. Me, I’m not very sexualised.” She has, all the same, inherited strong influences from the unorthodox history of the European cabaret and chanteuse scene, most obviously from the stage persona of the androgynous Marlene Dietrich.’
And: ‘The French singer, dancer, performance artist and composer, who is 26 this year, lives alone in the brash 19th arrondisement of Paris, near Pigalle, with her two cats and finds it hard to keep friends. She is often melancholy and says she is obsessed with death: “I’ve already thought about it. I have even tried it, but it didn’t work,” she told Libération.’
This blog’s been following Heloise since 2012, I even got a small piece on the Guardian’s Music Blog. I was very curious about Chaleur Humaine; it’s one of the strongest French albums released this year, one that can hold it’s ground against the influx of brilliant Quebecoise artists.
Though the ‘& the Queens’ adjective suggests a band, C&tQ is a one woman operation, which makes this album even more impressive. She admires Katy Perry, Michael Jackson and Beyoncé, but her music’s more in the vein of Fever Ray and Grimes: moody, electronica-driven, fragile at times.
The title track is one of the best tracks, with strings ‘n beats and a vocal melody that’s in the vein of Bashung and Christophe: no wonder, she covers his ‘Paradis Perdus’. Christine even inserts a bit of Kanye in her own version. Earlier, C&tQ did a reprise of Yves Simon’s Amazoniaque.
More C&tQ on Soundcloud.
Full album on Youtube.
Christine & the Queens – Chaleur Humaine
Julie Blanche
And yet another singer-songwriter from Quebec…
Now Julie Blanche’s eponymous debut EP was one that was missed when it was released last year. But with Julie finishing runner-up in this year’s edition of the prestigious Francouvertes (and you may just have heard of some of the previous finalists – La Patère Rose, Émilie Proulx, Chloé Lacasse, Les sœurs Boulay, not to mention last year’s winners Les Hay Babies) what better excuse than a quick revisit to one that got away?
This all to brief three-track EP is not so much a showcase of Julie Blanche’s talents but more of a tease; after listening there’s an overwhelming urge to discover more from this artist. Eschewing the more familiar country-folk route of a number of Francophone contemporaries, this EP instead veers towards an acoustic indie-pop path that is chock-full of dark, bitter-sweet melancholic rhythms. Indeed, “La maison d’hier” with it’s pounding, metronomic beat has a distinctive Gothic tinge and a fully-plugged in version would get very close to the dark indie-pop so reminiscent from Hôtel Morphée’s first album, “Des histoires de fantômes.”
According to her Bandcamp page (where the EP is available on a name your own price basis), Julie is currently in search of a record label. Given the exposure that the Francouvertes brings, I don’t expect this state of affairs to last for long…
Fanny Bloom
Fanny Bloom (she of La Patere Rose, she of the synthetically great Apprentie Guerriere solo debut) likes to change her style. Her new single (album’s coming up after summer) is a brass heavy, twerkin’ pool party. What do you think?
UPDATE:
Video-time:
Elodie Frégé sings Renaud
From a tribute to Renaud, earlier I posted the Mistral Gagnant cover by Coeur de Pirate. More here.
Claire Denamur
Claire Denamur was one of the brightest shining stars of francophone pop from 2008 to 2012, and was justly celebrated by Filles Sourires. Indeed we called her ‘Our Claire’, so much was she liked at FS. So, where’s our Claire? She has disappeared from the music scene.
She was married in September 2013, as she told us on her Facebook page . Will she make a third album, promised in a facebook entry on 1 January 2013 ? We can only hope.
Meanwhile Mark offers this retrospective on the career of a most attractive and talented writer, singer and bandleader on stage.
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Claire Denamur stands out among French writer-singers for her American style. She looks and sounds different from both her French compatriots and the Quebecoises who feature so often on FS. Born in 1984, Claire spent 10 years between the ages 5 of 15 living in the USA where her father was working. Bilingual, the American upbringing is very evident, yet her writing offers lyrics which are well ahead of the typical US songwriter. Claire explained how American rock bands have influenced her music, how she developed her skills, and what she aims to do in her songwriting, in an interview for Canal+ in 2012.
Claire’s first album was issued in 2009 – the annus mirabilis which also saw a number of other auteures-compositrices-interprètes who lead bands on stage, notably La Grande Sophie and Coeur de Pirate, first reach the top.
Here is an early hit, ‘Prince Charmant’
Her second album, ‘Vagabonde’, was recorded in Montreal in 2011, and soon after it came out she appeared on ‘Taratata’ to sing its hit single ‘Bang bang bang’ .
The best studio performances by Claire are from 2012, on Acoustic TV5 Monde – see the mesmeric ‘34 Septembre’ here
Claire has not sung much in English, but her remarkable cover, solo with her own guitar, of Lana del Rey’s ‘Video Games’.
A dramatic Denamur performance, showing her at the height of her powers, was at the Fête de Wallonie concert at Liège on 18 September 2011.
On Françoise Hardy’s 70th birthday, 17 January 2014, Swiss Radio played at hourly intervals 11 parts of an interview with her which had been recorded by Valérie Ogier of RTS specially for the day. In the first section, in which Françoise discusses how she won her first recording contract in November 1961, she reveals that her model was the electric guitar style of the Shadows. Her dream of being the guitar-playing lead singer of a band like the Shadows she never quite achieved, as she was soon working with orchestras and arrangers. But Claire Denamur at Liège, fronting a male band, tall and slim with long hair and wearing a trouser suit – a look largely invented by Françoise – seems to represent Francoise’s original ideal, fifty years on.
Anna Calvi & David Byrne cover Keren Ann
Been a while since we posted about Keren Ann. She’s still around, she still plays and today she tweeted about the cover of her song Strange Weather recorded by Anna Calvi and David Byrne.
It’s from a cover-EP by Calvi, more here.
Les Soeurs Boulay
Les Soeurs Boulay spoiled their fans with a free songs this week. If you’re not on their mailing list (click!), but call yourself a fan, you should really hear this great track. Includes a musical saw!
Les Soeurs Boulay – Ça
Fear of Men
Brit-duo Fear of Men (Jessica and Daniel) made a French-language version of one of the highlights on their latest album, Loom. Fear of Men is up there with Camera Obscura, Young Marble Giants and Marine Girls. Or, more recent, Hotel Morphée and Forêt. (Merci Joris)
M’Barka Ben Taleb sings Serge
M’Barka Ben Taleb hails from Tunesia, but is a minor star in Italy. She already made four albums, one of her songs is in the movie Fading Gigolo (starring Vanessa Paradis). On Ben Taleb’s upcoming album Passion Fruits, there’s a cover of Je t’aime… moi non plus. Featuring a well-known sample.