Eglantine

Eglantine is the singer (and bandleader) of Etyl, their debut album came out this summer and is an delicate, strings-and-electronica-infused affair that reminds me a little of Emilie Simon, although the theatrically trained Eglantine (gorgeous name) is sounds more mature. I don't know if Etyl is a big name in France, this website shows a nice video, but very little concerts. Still, En l'homme is a good song.

Hear Here.

Elli

Guest-selector Sir Edward Verward provided a great track by the very fit Elli Medeiros. Read Edward's nice story about her:
"Un tout petit baiser, au bord du decolleté" (from megahit A bailar calypso) can be included among the most catchy opening-phrases of French popmusic. As is the very ambiguous "prends un petite poisson, glisse le entre mes jambes, il n’y a pas de raison, pour se tirer la langue" (from Toi mon toît), a song regularly played out by fille-sourire french d-jane Clémentine.
Musical formation was due in punk band The Stinky Toys, splitting after two albums and recycling into infamous yé-yé pop-duo Elli & Jacno (rather call it yélectro). Together they wrote one of Lio’s first songs (Amoureux Solitaires) and collaborated on the original soundtrack of the Eric Rohmer’s movie Les nuits de la pleine lune. From this passiv-punk electro-coldness era together with dandy Jacno (remember Main à la main) until the more world-music influenced stuff she tango’ed through in the later parts of the eighties (Bom Bom in ‘87 for Barclay and a second Vanille in ‘89), her voice transformed from falsetto into very teasing and sensual.
Elli Medeiros has enforced strong respect, on one hand for her song-writing skills (it’s rare somebody embodies and keeps perfect balance between electronica and acoustica, between hysteria and tristesse, while smuggling in musical influences from Japan to Argentinia.), on the other hand for her exquisite use of French language, as the song posted, Marie, proves:

Coquille de roudoudou
Ton joli doux tout doux
Ma moue, mon boudou
Ouvre ta bodidou
Ne pense à midabou
Qoudou, mi dadou
Mon rikiki, mon tiz,
Au lit, mon bidi
Marie, mari, ami
Fais-mi, aussi...

Born in Uruguay, this fille de vanille tended in her later carreer towards the sounds of her motherland, with the song La Rubia (‘97) being a concluding piece and tribute to Montevideo. She went on to persue her other two main occupations, illustration and acting (Lulu,Jet Set), got romantically involved with Brian Da Palma, for whom she wrote a song and did costume-design for his film Femme Fatale. Currently she’s working on an new album together with Ettienne Daho’s équipe. Proceedings can be followed at the diary on her website.

Hear Here.

Agnès

Raised at Paris Montmartre, sang on the subway and on the street, made a debutalbum all by herself and now signed by Naive: 26-year old Agnès Bihl, la bombe blonde. She's a very small, very blonde singer, at least, that's what I understand from the press-clippings on her site. Second album Merci Maman Merci Papa came out in August, and is a very sunny affair, bit traditional maybe, with funny lyrics - as you can hear on J'ai pas le temps d'avoir 30 ans.

Hear Here.

Coralie

Oh joy: when I was playing records last Sunday afternoon at an Amsterdam café, I squeezed Coralie Clement's Samba de mon coeur qui bat in my set. One beautiful girl at a window table sang along (well, mouthed along) with the whole song. She did not look my way, maybe because her boyfriend was looking curious at her.
Coralie Clement (sister of Benjamin Biolay) is one of my favourite filles sourires - her uncertain, breathy voice tickles bodyparts I did not know could be tickled by a singing voice. She made two albums, the smokey-jazzy Salle Des Pas Perdus, and the more rocking Bye Bye Beauté. Both produced and almost totally written by Biolay. On BBB she gets songwritinghelp from Daniel Lorca of American rockband Nada Surf, who also duets with her. Both albums are great; Salle enforced my obsession with les filles sourires in a big way, but is maybe a little too smokey for some. BBB has a Calexico/desertrock-vibe that's also apparent on Biolays duet-album Home (with Chiara Mastroianni). Although I think girl from the north country Francoiz Breut excels in this French take on southern mariachi-influenced rock, Coralie's mischievous promises stir thoughts best shared in a low whisper.

From Salle des pas perdus: Mes fenêtres donnent sur la cour
Hear Here.

From Bye Bye Beauté: Indécise
Hear Here.

Re-connected

And we're done - all mp3's (that aren't crossed out like this) are up again. No more YSI! Just right-click and save-as. Files will be available for a limited time.

Frédérique

So, finally Le Pop 3 arrived. More men (Mickey 3D, Vincent Delerm, Toma, Mathieu Boogaarts, a.o.) than filles sourires on this compilation. Just four: Francoiz Breut, Camille, Lhasa (with Jérôme Minière) and Frédérique Dastrevigne. This site says her first album hasn't been released, but the inclusion of Les Copines D'Abord on Le Pop 3 might suggest otherwise. Dastrevigne is the partner of Pascal Parisot, who was present on other Le Pop's as well. Les Copines is a sweet, joyful song with Jean-Jacques Perry-like electronics and the high, strong voice of Frédérique. I'm very curious about the rest of Dastrevigne's songs.

Hear Here.

Jane (2)

I came across this site with awesome pictures of Jane Birkin, and thought it was time to post another song of the mother of all filles sourires. L'Acquoiboniste was written (ofcourse) by Serge. It's taken from the album Ex-Fan de Sixties. The title track of that album was covered by Stereo Total in a very jolly way, and is posted as well (2).

Hear Here 1; Hear Here 2.