ElodieO

We've had Anna-O, so here's ElodieO. No relation (I guess), but both are chanteuses of the fragile kind. Elodie was born in Paris and now lives in New York, where's she's part of the NuBlu-crew. Elodie is coming over to Europe to play Vienna and London. She e-mailed that she's available for more dates in September (check her MySpace). A while back she put a very nice version of Gainsbourg's L'Eau à la Bouche on that MySpace, and she was so kind to send it to me for all of us to enjoy it once again. I've added all other Eau's I could find - but am always open for more.

ElodieO - L'Eau à la Bouche
Vanessa Paradis - L'Eau à la Bouche
Moïra - L'Eau à la Bouche
Bia - Agua na Boca (L'eau à la bouche)
Anne Ducros - L'eau à la Bouche
Sublime - L'Eau à la Bouche
Serge Gainsbourg - L'Eau à la Bouche
Yuri Buenaventura - L'Eau à la Bouche
Philippe Risoli - L'Eau à la Bouche
André Ceccarelli, Pierre-Alain Goualch & Rémi Vignolo - L'Eau à la Bouche

Julien Doré

Men who sing songs meant for women and vice versa - gotta love 'm. Travis covering Britney Spears, Lyle Lovett singing Stand By Your Man, Nina Gordon turning NWA's gangstarap-classic Straight Outta Compton into a campfire-singalong, like I said, gotta love 'm. French Nouvelle Star-winner (think American Idol) Julien Doré adds his contribution to the list via a great cover of Alizée's poptastisc Moi...Lolita. It's not just funny, it actually works with his guitar-arrangement. Waaaay better than the trance-version that also exists of this song (surely you don't think I'm gonna post that, huh?). See Julien on YouTube.

Julien Doré - Moi Lolita
Alizée - Moi Lolita

Anna-O

If you write a song called Je t'aime, and sing with a husky whisper, Serge can't be far away. And although the lovely Anna-O ("a young lady in black and pink") and her mysterious companion Miss White refer to "Barbara, who would have had an extatic but very concrete affair with The Velvet Underground in the clouds", the guitar in this Je t'Aime version sure says Melody Nelson to me. Anna-O not only writes music and lyrics; in her own words: "Anna-O is also a promising painter, photographer and sculptor, just because, just because..."

Anna-O & Miss White - Je t'Aime

Vanessa Paradis

This just in: two songs from the new album Divine Idylle by Vanessa Paradis, releasedate September 3. It features songs (co-)written by Thomas Fersen, M, Brigitte Fontaine, Alain Chamfort, Franck Monnet, Vanessa herself and Jean Fauque. I haven't heard all tracks, but what I heard was either beautiful, brilliant or both. Let me know what you think.

Vanessa Paradis - Les Revenants
Vanessa Paradis - Des Que J'Te Vois

Waxdollies

Thanks to Maks and Rick, here's two versions of the indestructable Poupée de Cire Poupée de Son. The first is by German fourpiece Welle:Erdball (pictured), a band that likes to dress up, sing about robots a lot (think Devo and Man...or Astroman?) and use the vintage Commodore 64 computer for their bitpop-music, giving it a Kraftwerkian feel.
The other one is by Dutch actress Marijke Merckens (real name Marijke Ouwejan, born in 1940), who acted in plays, in the theater and in tv-series. I don't know who translated Modepop, but now it's a song about a mannequin who mocks the windowshoppers who pass her. In the end, one guy falls in love with her. She thinks about marrying him, as long as he gives her a lot of clothes. Gainsbourgian, you betcha.

Welle:Erdball - Poupée de Cire Poupée de Son
Marijke Merckens - Modepop
(I posted another Dutch version, with totally different lyrics, here)

Fabienne Delsol

Melinda aka Brian Damage wrote a small guestpost about Fabienne Delsol. "London based and French born, Fabienne is a modern day Ye Ye girl. Similar in style and spirit to both April March (new album coming up!) and Holly Golightly, she's one of my current favorites. She hasn't received the recgnition she deserves, but her music is sexy and well executed!"
Ain't that the truth. Fabienne needs to be waaaay bigger than she is now. Melinda wrote that she was looking forward to Fabienne's new album Between You And Me - that album was just released, and I have the French tracks (FB sings both in English and French, like April March, yes). So here's two older tracks and two brandspanking new ones!

Fabienne Delsol & The Bristols - Can't You See That He's Mine
Fabienne Delsol - I'm Gonna Haunt You
Fabienne Delsol - Vilaines Filles Mauvais Garçons
Fabienne Delsol - Pas Gentille

Division Kent

"A fictional trip through a reality-scape melding cinematic moods and the stardust of pop culture. Moments before they blur from the urge to be everywhere and nowhere – sometimes 'upbeat', sometimes 'zen', but always completely lucid." Well, yes, you could say that. You could also say that L'Heure Bleue, from the upcoming second album Gravity by Swiss dance-wave duo Division Kent, is how LCD Soundsystem would sound if played by French maids. Singer Andrea B. has a sexyhusky voice (she would look great in a French maid uniform, no doubt) there's a discobeat, there's guitars and there's sweet pleasure in the air. Think Vive La Fête, think Curve, think gothic-Kylie, think electronicagainsbourg. Why, Lord, why is this the only French song on their album?

Division Kent - L'Heure Bleue
Division Kent - Chemical Moon Baby - Plein Sud (from debutalbum Monsterproof)

Sandie, Amelie

Sandie and Amelie are like night and day. Sandie//Trash is the tough cookie who swears like a sailor and drinks like a soldier. She was featured here before with an up-to-11-cover of Jane B. Now she has electro-fied a song by cultpunkband Les Olivensteins from Rouen. Fier de ne faire rien (Proud of doing nothing) is a classic punksong with a classic nihilistic no-future text. Other songs by Les Olivensteins are called Euthanasie and Je Suis Negatif, so there you go.

Sandie//Trash - Fière de ne rien faire
Les Olivensteins - Fier de ne rien faire


When Amelie DeLange sings or speaks, birds suddenly appear. And butterflies. The sun comes out, clouds disappear, bad vibes are gone. If you're a regular visitor of this blog, you know that I am such a sucker for untrained girlie voices like Amelie's. Just like Sandie, she uses electronics in her music, but she's less in your face, more shy, sweet and innocent. In January, her album A Vol d'Oiseau was released, with songs she wrote with Yann de Paris.

Amelie Delange - Douter de Tout
Amelie Delange - Bonne Année Bonne Santé

Belin et les filles

You could call Bertrand Belin the French counterpart of Stuart Staples. Or maybe Neil Hannon. He's a crooner (although he never belts out), he mumbles a bit and his music's unashamed romantic, jazzy and cool. He's made two album, La Perdue is just out. That features a duet with the lovely Barbara Carlotti. On another occasion he duetted with the even lovelier Olivia Ruiz, for a special project covering the Dionysos-song La Métamorphose de Mr Chat. See the original version (featuring Babet) here.

Bertrand Belin & Barbara Carlotti - L'Aube Posée
Bertrand Belin & Olivia Ruiz - Le Rêve de Mr Chat

Charlotte in the remix

Remember Cousin Cole and his remix of Charlotte's The Operation? Official remixes have been released, on a vinyl 7-inch. Metronomy and Black Ghosts both got their way with 5.55. I really like the remix by Black Ghosts, they added that plopping bass Serge had in all his great songs, they left the vocals alone and had someone do background vocals. Metronomy's remix is more electronic, and a bit boring. So I only ripped BG's version.

Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5.55 (Black Ghosts remix)

Brazilian Girls

Guestpost! Jan-Willem on Sabina Sciubba of Brazilian Girls:

Sabina Sciubba of Brazilian Girls is a cosmopolitan Italian singer whose vagaries brought her to New York. During sessions at the Nu Blue club in Manhattan she hit it off with three male musicians and formed a band. Their music is a laid-back mix of jazz grooves, lounge, touches of tango and modern, tongue-in-cheek pop. Sciubba writes most of the lyrics in English, German, Spanish, Italian and French, while Argentine keyboardist Didi Gutman, who also wrote for Bebel Gilberto, seems to be the band’s main composer.
La Sciubba’s stage persona is slightly affected with her artistic penchant for masks and veils (oddly reminiscent of Chrissie Hyndes’ bangs which suggestively hid her eyes) but she possesses a sultry voice and a nice pair of legs. On a summer night in 2005 I more than enjoyed myself with this mysterious lady and her male companions at the Amsterdam BIM-huis, a jazz venue that they set alight with a hard-hitting set that verged on rock music.
Les sirènes de la fête is something of a wish-fulfilment reverie about things that could happen in Paris, faintly reminiscent of the eighties film Diva. It comes from their self-titled debut cd, which was my summer record for 2005: an entertaining mix, best described as an energetic, witty lounge album. Their second CD, Talk To La Bomb, [from which Le territoire is taken,] is less creative and playful. However, Brazilian Girls and their intriguing frontwoman continue to tour the world (this September they're in Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and rock the house wherever they appear.

Brazilian Girls - Sirenes de la Fête
Brazilian Girls - Le Territoire

Quickies

- Thanks to Franss, here's the mp3 of Séverine singing a fantastic cover version of Barbara Ackin's Am I the Same Girl (not Love Makes a Woman, as I thought earlier), plus the original version.

- René @ Notes Françaises posted a few sexy videoclips for songs by Benjamin Biolay, Elodie Frégé and Constance Verluca (above). What's sexier, you think: Elodie in a red bra, Constance with her shirt off, or Ben's wife Chiara nekkid? I'm guessing Constance, with Chiara a very close second.

- Dutch genius Spinvis made a very creepy Dutch language version of Poupée de Cire Poupée de Son for a French tribute night last year. It's called Was (Dutch word for wax, or cire), and it's on his upcoming album Goochelaars & Geesten (Magicians and Spirits).

Séverine - Je Suis Bien La Même
Barbara Acklin - Am I the Same Girl
Constance Verluca - C'est Faux
Spinvis - Was

Marine Boréale

If Marine Boréale becomes a big star, and there's reason to believe she will, remember where you heard her first, boys & girls. Thanks to singer/songwriter Joachim Janinn, here's two demosongs by the Belgian beauty, that reminds me a little of sweet li'l Roxane K. Joachim wrote a bunch of nice, sunny songs, with influeces of vaudeville and bossanova, that need some tweaking. Joachim wrote: "Marine's a Birkin-Gainsbourg and Biolay fan. At this time, she took some acting classes, but never studied music (neither did Astrud Gilberto). She's also not quite sure the sounds I'm using for these tracks are great, but she loves the songs and knows that someday, a producer will appear and give us the opportunity to record all that with real musicians..." Fingers crossed!

Marine Boréale - Noel en Été
Marine Boréale - Les najas nains

Les Quebecoises

Ever since I stopped by Natashka's two weeks ago, I'm hearing all this great music from Quebec. Did she put a Montréal spell on me? Dunno, but if so, merci bien ;-)
Here's a few examples:

There are a few Lapointe's active in music (Pierre, Nate, Jean, Jacob), but to my knowledge they're not related. Stéphanie Lapointe (pictured) is a gorgeous fragile looking blonde who won Star Academie (kind of Pop Idol) in 2004, and debuted with a nice album in 2005, Sur le Fil. Bit folky, mostly acoustic, and that husky but strong voice. She was, and still is an actress too, in films and plays. Her website says nothing about a new album, alas. [Clip]

Stephanie Lapointe - Nous Sommes
Stephanie Lapointe - Dis-moi

Marie-Annick Lépine is (was?) a member of Les Cowboys Fringants, according to Wikipedia a cultband who play neo-traditional Quebec folk, with country-influences. She plays the violin, and sings. Some songs on her debut-album Au Bout du Rang (2007) have a kind of Riverdance-ish rhythm, others are more hushed. With country influences too, so I am not quite seeing why she wanted to do a solo album. Anyways, she has a really sweet voice, bit like Françoise Hardy.

Marie-Annick Lépine - Si je ne t'aimes
Marie-Annick Lépine - Cette jolie photo d'elle

When reading about Anik Jean, you come across some big names. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave-fame played on her first album Le Trashy Saloon (2005), Jack Endino (Nirvana, Bad Religion) and Mark Needham (Fleetwood Mac) produced. It's an album featuring upbeat popsongs, soundexperiments and heavy blues. She once played at a Rolling Stones-party, a band that's one of her big influences. Anik sings and plays guitar, I guess that's her soloíng in Haine.

Anik Jean - Haine
Anik Jean - Pense à toi

Help wanted, song needed

Question: does anybody know who sang a great French coverversion of Barbara Acklin's Love Makes A Woman? It is used in an equally great reportage of Belgian dancetroupe Les Vedettes, who performed with Katerine. See that video here, it's the first song after the introduction. UPDATE: I got it! Thanks!
Btw: you can download Vive Papa by Les Vedettes & Katerine here. You might know the girls from this video as well.

Aout Alive

I planned to do a project in August featuring my favourite live-tracks, but then stuff came up. Like songs by new filles (more on those later), plus a short vacation. So I am going to leave you for about 10 days, with five of my fave live songs. Enjoy.


Vanessa Paradis - Le Cactus (live)
Jeanne Cherhal - Super 8 (live)
Camille - Le Sac des Filles (live)
Jane Birkin - Comment Te Dire Adieu (live)
Francoiz Breut & Calexico - Si Tu Disais (live)

Summer Party Sureshot!

Martin Solveig & Stephy Haik - Cabo Parano

Adeline Moreau

Adrian emailed me, putting "You are going to love this one" in the tagline. He asked if I knew Adeline Moreau, who he descibed as "Emilie Simon without the helium voice". Now, if you know that Kate Bush, Björk, Pauline Croze and Perry Blake are among her favorites, you get the picture. I was aware of Adeline, but hadn't investigated well enough. My loss.
I don't understand why she hasn't been signed to a recordlabel, En Avril is a gorgeous song, and on her MySpace are three other great chansons. About En Avril, the talented and ambitious Adeline (she wants to sing, dance and take photographs) (not all at the same time mind you) says in this email-interview: "I wrote En Avril in 2001.I was in a perfect moment, I was in love, I was happy, it was the spring (my favourite season), everything was inspiring me love, tenderness, soft feelings! And this song is about a love story."

I'm sure you're going to love this one.

Adeline Moreau - En Avril

Viviane Audet

Bestweekever-blog linked to Filles Sourires, in a post featuring Viviane Audet. The gal from Montreal has been on my radar, but for some reason I never really listened to her music. The description on BWE ("Her name is Viviane Audet, her French Pop music is both eclectic and enjoyable, sort of like Fiona Apple for less-suicidal foreigners. And it seems like she’s still undiscovered") is apt - she can sing on the verge of tears, and on the brink of a nervous breakdown. At times she sounds a little like Francoiz Breut, especially in Guerre de 3 1/2. Viviane is a singer turned actress turned singer, in 2006 her debut Le Long Temps was released.

Viviane Audet - J'ai rien à dire
Viviane Audet - Guerre de 3 1/2