Yes, it's the time of year when Blogs around the world run out of interesting new stuff to write about and so compile a few "best of" lists...
Although access to Francophone music Stateside is improving, the major labels are still somewhat tardy when it comes to releasing physical media here, while the availability of legal downloads can be even more problematic - all to often distributors and the labels hide behind arcane and frankly ridiculous regional DRM issues. Actually, its this lack of DRM and rights restrictions that is one of the major pluses of Bandcamp. It's no coincidence that several of the artists listed below originally released their music via that website.
So with that having been said, the only other proviso was that only those albums that had an official release Stateside in 2013 that also coincided with their original release were considered. This unfortunately disqualified both Pendentif's otherwise excellent "Mafia Douce", which to date still hasn't had a US release or legal download (hello Discograph - I'm talking to you...) and La Grande Sophie's sublime "La Place Du Fantôme", arguably her best album to date which didn't surface over here until it was re-released by Polydor in France with an additional 5-track EP, "Re(cord)". Here we had to bloody well buy it separately...
There were a number of fine country-tinged albums released this year, but this one stood head and shoulders above the crowd. From Marie-Pierre Arthur influenced toe-tappers (“Tomber frêle” and “Les détours”), delightful country numbers (Les ébats” and “Toucher les cèdres”) to plaintive ballads ("Chambre 16" and “Les élans”), Chantal expertly crafted 12 songs that resulted in "Les élans" being deservedly nominated in the Country album category at this year's Quebec Indie Music Awards (GAMIQ).
A couple of fine mini-albums or EP's make up the next entry (on the basis that two-EP's are worth one album...)
Firstly, budding actress, model and cash-strapped fashionista Chantal Bellavance turned her hand to song-writing and delivered four bitter-sweet vignettes of life, love, despondency and disillusionment. “J'attends" was a nigh-on perfect example of contemporary electro-synthesiser pop, from the retro-80's influenced title track and the up-tempo "Le matériau ne convient pas", to the slow-burning "Qui", where Chantal's crystal-clear and classically-trained voice pierce the melancholia like a laser beam.
Meanwhile, the New Brunswick trio of Julie Aubé, Katrine Noël and Vivianne Roy - better known as - Les Hay Babies, gave us "Folio", a bilingual and delightful 6-track country-folk influenced EP, tinged with beautiful Arcadian-French accents, tight harmonies and a rye sense of humour, evident from the plaintive "Obsédée" to the in-your-face "Chu pas une femme à marier". The band also deservedly won this year's Francocouvertes (following in the footsteps of such luminaries as La
Patère Rose (Fanny Bloom), Chloé Lacasse and last year's winners Les
Soeurs Boulay), resulting in some quality studio time and distribution
of the resulting album, which should hopefully see the light of day next year...
Thanks to a heart-felt review in Dutch blog Nummer Van de Dag, (or at least a translation), I finally realised that one Isabelle Geffroy is a proper Chanteuse and that she can abso-bloody-lutely nail chansons (albeit this album's opener "On ira" is actually a perfect pop song), as was apparent from both "La lessive" or the Piaf-esque "Je tant escamoté". There's a great warm jazz undercurrent permeating throughout the album (evident from the clip below of "Comme ci, comme ça") that is topped off with a fantastic (and faithful) cover of Charles Aznavour's "Ouble Loulou". Besides, if Zaz is good enough for acclaimed economist and New York Times columnist Professor Paul Krugman, she's more than good enough for my end of year list...
A far more expansive album that her 2010 debut, the melancholic and autobiographical "À présent le passé" mined the rich seam of contemporary French-Canadian folk and the jazz, blues and country of traditional Americana. There's a frightening effortless in the way that Laurence moved from pop-tinged country to blues, jazz and back again. But it was the slower numbers - "De tout et de rien" and especially the melancholic and semi-autobiographical "trente ans" and "La rivière", all piano intertwined with snare and bass - that really shone. This album is worth the entry money to those tracks alone.
In which the girl from Ajaccio came back with a vengeance. After a bit of a mauling for "Une Enfant du Siècle", with her 5th studio album Alizée finally hit upon the mature sound and style that she had been striving for. The album's opener "À cause de l'automne", with its retro-60's feel (check out the Bond-esque video to the song, below) and sweeping chorus, was as good a pop song as was released this year and set the vibe and tone that resonated throughout the album, featuring as it did a great mix of interspersed catchy, memorable up-tempo and slower songs - from "Le dernier soufflé" to the heartfelt and semi-autobiographical "10 ans". Alizée has always had a great voice, but all too often never the material. This album resolved that particular conundrum...
For all the great pop, country and folk albums that the French-Canadian Provinces have produced in 2013, the French music scene this side of the pond desperately needs bands capable of producing more albums of this calibre. "Histoires des fantomes" was a dark, brooding, Gothic, yes - majestic - work. The eleven tracks demanded attention - orchestral strings plucked with chainsaws, Stéphane Lemieux's solid percussion and Laurence Nerbonne's distinctive flat, haunting vocals - all of which hinted at an undercurrent of menace. While "Garde à vous" was unashamedly poppy (in a gory "Night of the living dead" - don't let those of a nervous disposition watch the video, kind of way), it was with songs such as "Des histoires de fantômes", and "Dessine-Moi" that really hit home. The album's final track is the aptly titled "C'est mieux comme ca". It most definitely is...
I don't think that I'll ever be able to thank Marie-Élise enough for pointing-out Marianne's album "Le Balcon". This was simply a stunningly beautiful, delicate yet intricate mélange of folk, jazz, country pop and mariachi-infused folklorico. The album set out its stall with ambitious bluesy-jazzy "chansons" such as "Blanc et noir" and "Jour de paye"; changed tempo with a deliciously risqué - all Marie-Pierre Arthur meets Feist - "Dagmar", added some Latin influence - especially with the Mariachi-infused horns on "Les outardes" - and then bought it all back down to earth again with an achingly beautiful and note-perfect a cappella canción in “Prisionero”. Every track on this album was a truly a work of art and an utter pleasure to listen to. Indeed, its hard to believe that this polished and professional album was Marianne’s debut offering, as there was a maturity and assuredness far beyond her tender years on display...
Just how good was the eponymous debut album from Montreal-based duo Émilie Laforest and Joseph Marchand? As good an example of inventive indie-rock as was released this year - in English or in French - that's how good. As I hinted earlier with Hotel Morphée's "Histoires des fantomes", this is exactly the kind of cutting-edge music that the French-Canadian music scene is crying out for. A deliciously disturbing album - distilling the atmospheric expansiveness of The Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance with the dark psychedelic undercurrent of Portishead - the end result, infused with Laforest's dreamy yet haunting vocals, weaved a surrealistic yet edgy aural landscape. Nine perfectly crafted and varied songs, from “Le verbe amour”, with its chorus that embedded itself in your skull, the driving beat of “Corps maquillés” to the ghostly "Je tombe avec la pluie”. This album left the same impression as This Mortal Coil's subliminal "It'll end in tears". Absolutely fantastic!
"Rouge ardent" was Belgian singer-songwriter Axelle Red's ninth studio album and arguably her best since 1996's "À Tâtons". With a collection of 10 thoughtful, introspective, soul-tinged songs, she drew from all of her 20 year career, surrounded herself with the cream of Memphis (and a non too shabby team of co-songwriters) and pulled together an incredibly soulful and humble album. From the driving beat of "Amour profund" with its wall of horns and percussion, the brooding intensity of "Rouge ardent", to powerful ballads such as and "jusqu'au bout" "C'est une ville", "Je te l'avais dit" and in particular
the haunting, plaintive "Quelque part allieurs" - all delivered with Axelle's uniquely powerful vocal style (which arguably has never sounded this good) - "Rouge ardent" was an expertly crafted, beautiful - indeed, perfect - hommage to the city that gave the world the sound of Stax.
I'd raved about Sisters Melanie and Stéphanie Boulay's EP last year, but their sublime debut album exceeded all expectations. This was an album chock full of heart-warming songs about love, life and heartbreak. At times - with “Mappemonde” (..."Même si ce t’écrit sur la mappemonde, Que je serai jamais ta blonde"...) and with "Lola en confiture" - intimate and introverted, others bold and extrovert (“Ôte-moi mon linge” and the toe-tapping, thigh-slapping “Par Le chignon de cou”). The sister's warm and hauntingly rhythmic melodies stood comparison to those of a certain Simon and Garfunkel, especially the way their voices intertwined telepathically. As the whole point of "End of year lists" is to pick a "best of", this, deservedly, is my album of the year. Seems
I'm not alone. "Le poids des confettis" picked up "Folk Album of the
Year" awards at both major Quebec music awards festivals (ADISQ and
GAMIQ), while the Sisters themselves won Artist of the Year at the
aforementioned GAMIQs...
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