10/10: Best French albums of the decade (2)

Here's my list. Camille is pictured (no.8)

1 Coralie Clément - Salle des pas perdus (2002)
The reason why Coralie Clément is in the header of this blog, is this album. My interest in French music, sung by sultry girls really took off when I first heard Salle. The whispered songs, the smokey atmosphere, the lyrics about longing and heartbreak (by Benjamin Biolay), it's the holy trinity of Filles Sourires.

2 Benjamin Biolay - La Superbe (2009)
A double album: versatile songs (there's jazz, there's Argentinian reggae-metal), great lyrics (almost all whispered), this is what French music is today. What a guy. What a record.

3 Dominique A - Auguri (2001)
The nanosecond Dominique Ané opens his mouth, tears well in my eyes. Melancholy to the max. The man, who personally started la nouvelle scène Française, never made a bad album (even Si je connais Harry has a mthrfckr of a song, L'amour). His strongest are L'Horizon, Tout sera comme avant and this shining diamond.

4 Guy Chambers and Sophie Hunter - The Isis Project (2006)
Guy Chambers (yes, he worked with Robbie Williams) made this album as a gift for his daughter. I guess she will fully understand the beauty ánd the sexiness of it, when she's 18. Lyrics by Keren Ann, it's easy to dismiss this as fluffy kitsch. But fluff and kitsch are essential elements of French pop. So there.

5 Tarmac - Notre Époque (2003)
This duo fuse Mediterranean music with electronics, and the result is a soundtrack to walking the wet streets of an old Southern European city. Shame this never took off.

6 Coeur de Pirate - Coeur de Pirate (2008)
Incredible album by an incredible girl. Youthful energy that makes an old fart like me feel alive, ALIVE!

7 Françoiz Breut - Une saison volée (2005)
Not the first (and certainly not the last) Frenchie to be inspired by music from the American south. But make no mistake, this is a French album. You see the Nevada desert, but you feel the Normandy seawind.

8 Camille - Le Fil (2005)
I was blown away when I first heard this album (almost everything is done by the human voice), I was blown away when I saw her live.

9 Keren Ann - La biographie de Luka Philipsen (2000)
She made better albums, yes. But you never get a second chance for a first impression. And this first impression still lasts.

10 Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5.55 (2007)
Cheating, you say? 'cause she sings almost all songs in English? She's Charlotte Gainsbourg, she can do whatever the hell she wants. And me too.