Sélection de Lundi: Natacha Le Jeune

The art of the vanishing act: Boyish Natacha Le Jeune entered the French music business as chanteuse of Parisian 70s retro rockers A.S. Dragon, who before had been something like a clone pet project of Tricatel owner Bertrand Burgalat. Dragon’s second longplayer, Spanked (2003), went widely unnoticed, though it contains Natacha’s probably finest performance: a touching pop rendition of Un hémisphere dans une chevelure (A hemisphere in her hair), the passionate seventeenth poem of Charles Baudelaire’s posthumously published collection Le spleen de Paris (1869). The same album also featured Mais pas chez moi, a quite catchy earworm that would have deserved to be a major hit. After another Dragon album, Va chercher la police (2006), Natacha quit the band and disappeared ... or rather transformed into Patti Smith & Iggy Pop, two-in-one style. Question: Fille? Answer: Grrrl.

A.S. Dragon, Un hémisphere dans une chevelure
A.S. Dragon, Mais pas chez moi