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| Plus Frenchie que ça, on meurt ... |
I've been a fan since her extraordinary second album Variations, made with Serge Gainsbourg, up with who's shit she would not put, inspiring his "Paradis, c'est l'enfer" quote. I was living in France at the time, and the eye-popping video for Tandem [below, you skeevy perves - Ed.] got me rushing out for the record.
Since then, every release has been a subtle grower of a blast. She has impeccable taste, she's whip-smart, and she knows what she wants, which has given her the reputation of being a bit of a brat.
Arriving a scant seven years after her last, her latest album Le Retour Des Beaux Jours [below, Ed.] comes as a hugely welcome surprise (at least to je), and it's another partnership with the truly gifted Etienne Daho. Of all her albums, it's perhaps the most diverse, leaping effortlessly across style barriers, and because of this will be a swell introduction should youse bums be unfamiliar with her œuvre [Fr. egg - Ed.]. It's a damn shame you're too dumb to speak French, because the lyrics are as thoughtful and clever as ever, but you'll appreciate the grooves and the vibes and the sumptuous sound. And that elusive quality of Frenchie sophistication, which she has out th' ass.
My birthday present! Thanks, Nessa! Album O' Th' Year, and by some way.
When you think of France, assuming you do from time to time, what do you think of?
ReplyDeleteMy French exchange visit - the food, the bread, the unsalted butter, fromage frais, (cheese with sugar on it) and the smell of garlic and Gitanes on the Metro.
ReplyDeleteProustian stuff, Ger!
DeleteThe Provence area - especially Aix and Fontainebleau. Just beautiful landscapes. Oh, and the wine and food aren't too bad, either.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I lived near Aix for a while. Great festival/free concert scene around there at the time.
DeleteStill exists. The number of music fests in that area in the summer is unreal.
DeleteRoast chicken with 40 garlic cloves from a bistro (whose name escapes me - although it was owned by an 80 year old woman and was named after her) in Lyon.
ReplyDeleteLyon, far more than Paris, is Gastronome Central. And you honor the animal by eating all of it, rather than throwing much of it into the trash bin. Tripes? Andouillette? Comin' at yuh in shorts n' quarts!
DeleteI think of my sister-in-law and her crazy (not in a good way) ex-husband who both reside there. Also, the view from Montmartre with an orange sun low in the sky.
ReplyDeleteI can't be assed to produce accents, but I think of the school I went to in Marseille, when my dad was in the last year of his NSF Fellowship (!!) and was subsidized to get a job somewhere foreign. You could buy pain chocolate for a half-franc at recess! I also turned thirteen during that year and became utterly fascinated with the female students in my class. Ah, youth.
ReplyDeleteIt might be worth noting that my sister (two years older, and at that time a deadly enemy) got turned on to a Georges Moustaki live album while we were living there, by her school chums. It's very good!
https://vimeo.com/511581586
D in California
Fresh bread, good coffee, beautiful landscapes, polite people and shocking drivers.
ReplyDeleteOf all the things I learned during my years in France, the achievement of which (grammar) I'm most proud is driving through/across/around l'Etoile at rush hour.
DeleteZut alors! I forgot...Johnny Hallyday.
ReplyDeleteEven the French have forgotten Johnny, the Belgian garagiste.
DeleteI played this four times back to back yestiddy with no palate fatigue or chalky aftertaste. Upbeat and hooky (ideal for parties on the Croisette - c'est swing!), coupla smoky torch songs, a ballad or two, some slay beats [er ... Ed.], and everything recorded and arranged and played like the 21C was a fever dream and never really happened. It's to your undying shame that you're, like, meh, because ... this is pop!
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/g4c4pzBJzuQ
Alternative link (exactly the same, but it gives you the illusion of consumer choice on which our lives are based):
https://workupload.com/file/g4c4pzBJzuQ
@193
There seems to be a little distortion in Elements, but it's present on all the available rips, which I suspect are from the same source.
Deleteshouldn't she be nue ???
ReplyDelete...woody
Do calm down ...woody.
DeleteCroissants .. Brie & Camembert .... Gong!!
ReplyDeleteFrance, first holiday abroad with the family in 2 cars, camping in Bretagne, kicking a ball at the campsite which unfortunately ended in the middle of a lunch-set table...
ReplyDeleteA high school outing to Paris which was supposedly for educational purposes, but we did see the Eiffel Tower and Mona Lisa...
Nowadays whenever I wander through Bangrak and walk past the French Embassy!
... used to make holidays in France until Tschirak got president ...
ReplyDeletemy fav french band: Les Rita Mitsuko
Hermann
The french gang had (and have) great weight in my country (Argentina) being a land of inmigrants and adventurers in its early stages.
ReplyDeleteDaring pilots like Saint Exupery roamed the skies of Patagonia in the first air mail service
to distant locations (the Aeropostale)
The first climbers in our most fearsome mountains were french as well.
I learned the language at a state school down here and enjoy practising and reading it every now and then.
Don't know well what they did in their former colonies but you don't become a world's important country without stepping onto a few toes I guess.
The Alliance Francaise does a good job in terms of bringing artists and events that are otherwise unthinkable in our country (apart from teaching the language in some inner provinces).
Something to chill in the french mood
Cheers
Bat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ltJlzg6zz0&list=RD7ltJlzg6zz0&start_radio=1