Sélection de Lundi: Sarah Nixey

Though Sarah Nixey is British, she’s a fille sourire to boot, levitating effortlessly between the realms of innocence and lasciviousness, the subversive and the sublime. With Black Box Recorder – assisted by Luke Haines of Auteurs fame and John Moore, ex-Jesus & Marychain –, she recorded three of the smartest, though heavily neglected pop CDs of the last decade; a new album was announced for 2009, and we're still waiting. French Rock’n’Roll from Recorder’s brilliant second record Facts of Life echoes the spirit of Jane & Serge, London-style, and features even a few lines en francais:

Black Box Recorder – French Rock’n’Roll

Solo, Sarah also did a quite trippy club cover of Francoise Hardy’s hit Le temps de l’amour, written by Hardy’s future husband Jacques Dutronc in 1962. Sarah video + Francoise’s original version:

Sarah Nixey – Le temps de l’amour (video)
Francoise Hardy – Le temps de l’amour
UPDATE:
Sarah Nixey - Le temps de l'amour
Sarah Nixey - Ici avec toi ('a gauloised-up translation of the dreamily romantic When I’m Here With You')

Last not least, another of Sarah’s French connections from the compilation The Worst of Black Box Recorder: Her version of Terry Jacks’ weeper superhit Seasons in the Sun – cover of Jacques Brel’s classic chanson Le Moribond – reverberating an entirely different quality: the dizzy state when awakening from an already half-forgotten dream.

Jacques Brel – Le Moribond
Terry Jacks – Seasons in the Sun (German version)
Black Box Recorder – Seasons in the Sun