Some That Got Away
Christmas and the New Year is a time for reflection and introspection... None more so than when taking advantage of some enforced time-off to catch-up with all those "Best of" lists, be it from "le grand œuvre" that is the ever wonderful Filles Sourires, Olivia's passionate Gypsy Death And You, Indie Wonderland's 2013 retrospective or any of the myriad of blogs that I try and keep abreast of (from "All Things Go" to "Vive Le Roq" and all points in-between).
Then it soon became fairly obvious that my End-of-Year List(s) were somewhat less than exhaustive.
So with a "mea culpa" to those artists, here with a final look back at 2013 are a few artists that I missed...
The team at Filles Sourires absolutely raved about this album and with good reason. Alka's breathless vocals instantly reminds you of a heady mix of Jane Birkin, Isabele Adjani and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Everything feels very (Serge) Gainsbourg-ish (indeed there's a fantastic cover of France Gall's "Les gens bien éleves" here as well). But at the same time this album feels somehow contemporary and fresh (and you have to credit songwriter, composer and producer Benjamin Boilay here). There's a timeless quality on display here - in part because her voice effectively has a forty year time span, but also because the songs could quite seamlessly appear on any of those artists' albums over this same time period without appearing jarringly out of place - everything feels so familiarly reassuring... "La première fois" is the kind of album you want to play to remind you that everything is OK with the world...
Frankie Rose - late of amongst others, the Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls (frankly how much more of a recommendation do you want?) - returned with "Herein Wild", which explored the same surreal dream-like universe that she created with her debut solo effort, 2012's "Interstellar". However, while this latter sounded to these ears just a little disjointed - primarily, I suspect, in a move to escape from her previous lo-fi garage-band musical past (although from most reviews I think I'm on my own on this one) - "Herein Wild" is most definitely the finished, polished article. It's all reverbed guitars, thumping bass, rhythmic drums, lots of synths and harmonic, soaring melodies - with more than a hint of that lilting Robert Smith guitar sound - that just flows so perfectly. There's the added bonus of a totally owned version of The Damned's "Street of dreams", before the album closes out with the haunting ballad 'Requiem" - all dreamy vocals and sombre trumpet solo... Worth the price of admission alone.
Embarrassingly, the former first lady of France's fourth album (and her third in French) totally escaped my attention. I'm still not quite sure how this happened, since it's easily her best since "Quelqu'un m'a dit". The album features eleven beautiful chansons, consisting of ten original compositions (especially check-out the lilting "J'arrive à toi" and the up-tempo "Chez Keith et Anita") and a stunning Italian interpretation of Charles Trenet's "Douce France" all transport the listener to a small Left Bank café, thick with the haze of Gauloises, and which all makes "Little French Songs" a more than pleasant escapade. Sure, this album isn't tearing up new roots, but it does confirm that when she puts her mind to it, Ms Bruni-Sarkozy can turn out an album full of beautifully lilting chansons. All in all, a classy album from a very classy lady - and one whom I'm looking forward to seeing in L.A. this April...
And yes, another country-folk-pop singer from Quebec - it's obviously something they add to the water up there. This is a delicious assortment of contemporary pop-bordering-on-Country songs. From the country-folk "Rentrer tard" with its fantastically catchy MPA-inspired chorus and "Dis à mon coeur" to some great up-tempo pop-songs - "Bagatelle", "L’évidence", the CdP-ish "Que des amants" and the achingly melancholy "Mon plus beau naufrage”. You could argue that similar to Carla Bruni's album, Ariane Brunet and "Fusée" don't exactly break new ground, but it's more than pleasant a selection of beautifully crafted songs - all sweet vocals, simple guitars and sweeping strings. Just the thing for a summer's day...
And yes, yet another jeune Québécois... Maude first came to the public's attention at last year's 17th edition of the annual Francouvertes festival and for her debut album "Le temps inventé" is a remarkably assured offering. Like a number of her contemporaries, Maude skirts a rich-vein of contemporary folkish-pop, reflecting on love , hope and disillusionment... but what sets her apart is the introduction of a harder sound. There's plenty of reverb, grungy guitar and edge on both "Météore" and "Dans le désert". All of the thirteen gems on this albums have great hooks and melodies which perfectly suit Maude's vocal style - which at times flirts between those two Quebec stalwarts - MPA and CdP. Another highly recommended album.
And this is how to have my cake AND eat it. London-based Savages's lead singer Jehnny Beth is the nom-de-plume of French Chanteuse Camille Berthomier. To these ears she sounds uncannily like Siouxsie - in fact the album has that same raw energy, difficult silences and deliberately uncomfortable edginess that is so reminiscent of the first two Banshees' albums, "The Scream" and "Join Hands". There's a pent-up fury just bursting out of every track, a wall of howling, distorted guitars, pounding drums and snarling vocals from a band who aren't going to take one iota of shit from anyone and aren't prepared to compromise one inch... Listening to this album transports you (if you're my age) back to a time when music really mattered. You could argue that the band aren't exactly pushing at any new musical boundaries. You know what? So what? I've seen the future and it's in my past...
Chloé Robineau's - who goes by the name Robi - debut album "L’hiver et la Joie" is a stunningly atmospheric and at times dark and brooding, minimalist indie-pop album populated with synth keyboards and throbbing basslines... the sort of album that immediately reminds me why I can be so readily attracted to this genre - it might also have something to do with her having the sort of voice that I’d quite happily crawl over broken glass to listen to - all moody and deliberately monotonic - that helps cultivate the sparse aural landscape this album paints.
As previously mentioned, any band that includes a member of Dum Dum Girls in its provenance is definitely worth a listen. SISU are fronted by Dum Dum Girls' drummer Sandra Vu and their debut "Blood Tears" is a bewitching, hypnotic album that is at times shoe-gaze, early-80's British Electronica (think Pre-"Dare" Human League or New Order around the time of "Movement" (especially noticeable on the throbbing bass hook that permeates the album) and indie-pop, but which is ultimately far greater than the sum of it's parts... What holds everything together are Vu's mesmerising vocals. The way the album has been structured reminds me at times of artists as diverse as the Cocteau Twins, Bauhaus, My Bloody Valentine and Bjork, all married to the subversive synth-beat of Soft Cell... I'm not sure whether Vu deliberately wanted her band not to sound like Dum Dum Girls - but she has most definitely succeeded. This is frankly an utterly enthralling album that literally sucks you in...
This album was recommended by a fellow Stateside Francophile. I've previously been moved to bemoan the at-times lack of cutting edge music emanating from Nord du 49e, so it was a pleasant surprise to discover an artist who - upon further research - has been ploughing this furrow for the past 9 years(!) Wow - this is an in-you-face, guitar-thrashing, bass and percussion-pounding rock album. Here in the States this album would have "Parental Advisory" stickers all over it. Luckily, they're still too busy bastardising proper English to notice. Which explains why track 2 is entitled "F**k le danse" - with an "Explicit" warning - while track 6 is just called "Baise-moi"(!!!) This is a thoughtful alt-rock album for adults (and no I don't mean adult-orientated rock) - that tackles sex, love (and the fear of and the commitment to love), fragility and mental illness. The title track, "Schizophrène", is a truly heartfelt piano-driven ballad in which Anik attempts to confront the stigma associated with Schizophrenia (although it appears to have divided some). However, for another view and the kind of in-depth review that I can but aspire to, I point you towards altrockchick's thoughtful and excellent review. Moi? I don't pretend to know the full story behind the controversy surrounding ""Schizophrène" (the song), but "Schizophrène" (the album) is a full-on and mightily powerful experience from an artist not afraid to speak her mind. So much so that not only this album but her back-catalogue are now in my collection...
And then there are those albums that I really wanted to include but who once again fall foul due to the fact that their record label couldn't be arsed to release it here in the States... Seriously guys, if you aren't going to bother, why should I? It's not like I'm going to fork-out $$$ for an import - there's more than enough stuff that is released here that I can get hold of - at a far more reasonable price...
Then it soon became fairly obvious that my End-of-Year List(s) were somewhat less than exhaustive.
So with a "mea culpa" to those artists, here with a final look back at 2013 are a few artists that I missed...
Alka Balbir - "La première fois"
Frankie Rose - "Herein Wild"
Carla Bruni - "Little French Songs"
Ariane Brunet - "Fusée"
Maude - "Le temps inventé"
Savages - "Silence Yourself"
Robi - "L’hiver et la Joie"
SISU - "Blood Tears"
Anik Jean - "Schizophrène"
And then there are those albums that I really wanted to include but who once again fall foul due to the fact that their record label couldn't be arsed to release it here in the States... Seriously guys, if you aren't going to bother, why should I? It's not like I'm going to fork-out $$$ for an import - there's more than enough stuff that is released here that I can get hold of - at a far more reasonable price...
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