Bande à Renaud is a tribute to one of France’s most prolific songwriters and performers, Renaud. Volume 1 contained covers by Coeur de Pirate, Elodie Frégé, Carla Bruni and Benjamin Biolay. Now, Volume 2 is out. With an impressive line up as well. Various teasers have appeared on YT:
From her upcoming album, this is a cover of a Marie Paule Belle song:
Today, I interviewed Coralie Clément. The guardian angel of this blog, the one who wrote a blog post for us all a few years back (this one
), the singer who stands for everything this blog is about: the love for French songs, sung by husky beautiful girls.
You can understand my excitement.
The interview will run in a few months in a Dutch magazine, but I can give you the highlights. Yes, La belle affaire is mostly about a girl and a boy breaking up. But it’s not about her own divorce from Marc Chouarain, father of daughter Iris and collaborator on ‘La belle affaire’. Coralie says that the theme and the stories of the song are more universal.
She told me she loves Françoise Hardy, that she recorderd her cover of ‘Mon amie la rose’ for a german ad and decided to keep the song for her album. Jane Birkin, Vanessa Paradis, Gainsbourg and Depeche Mode are among her favorites as well. ‘I’m in love with (Depeche Mode-singer) Dave Gahan’, she said, in that ultra-lovely French accent of her (see this interview to hear how CC speaks in English).
Just like on her second album, big sister Gaëlle plays the flute on this album, you can hear her on the closing track Tes nuits pâles. We didn’t talk that much about Benjamin.
She said she loves the movies, loves Sofia Coppola and thinks Lost in Translation is a masterpiece. The loneliness of the ScarJo character in that movie is very appealing to Coralie. ‘I can very much relate to that, in the sense that I love travelling, love being on tour, love to immerse myself in other countries and cultures. But on the other hand, it’s not your home, it’s not your culture, you feel overwhelmed and left out.’
We talked a little about Iris, her daughter. She told me she made the children’s book Iris à 3 ans (with Gesa Hansen) because when she saw her little girl listen to the Vengeance-album by Benjamin, that she reacted very shocked to the swearing in various songs. ‘So I decided to make a book that I could read to her that was more suitable for her young ears’, she laughed. Oh my.
She might come to the low countries next year, March or April, so let’s light a candle for that to happen, ’cause now that I’ve spoken to her, I’d give my left index finger to see her play live.
Blast from the past:
Very, very impressed by the debut album of this man, Pierre Kwenders. His music and his voice have nothing to do with the soft sighing girls that are usually posted here. But hey, you do not eat boeuf bourguignon every night, do you? Pierre was born in Congo, now lives in Quebec and is influenced by 40s Congolse rumba, 80s African pop and current electronic music Read an interview with PK here.
Missed this in April, when Olivier Juprelle released his album Le bruit et la fureur. The Belgian guitarplayer, former member of Mud Flow, duets with several fragile filles, including ‘our’ Coralie. Cythère is a very cool track, Gainsbourgian with big guitar solo’s. Also on that album are duets with Auryn and Li-Lo, singers I’d never heard of before. Auryn is really a nice discovery. Juprelle’s album is on Bandcamp, and worth a listen too. By the way, Mud Flow is also the band of Vincent Liben, who has a knack of duetting with FS favorites too.
Olivier Juprelle & Coralie Clément – Cythère
(Which Martin Scorsese movie was used?)
The Amsterdam-based Spinshots, featuring the superlovely miss Flora Dolores, have graced this blog more than a few times. Because of their wonderful Gainsbourg-cover, because of that duet Flora recorded with mr A Balladeer, because of their brooding French track and, well, because of Flora’s unescapable charm, really.
Last Saturday, The Spinshots presented their new EP. Shame I couldn’t be there, but all tracks are up on Bandcamp. You can hear their enriched sound on tracks like this one:
FINALLY, the new Coralie Clément album is here. CC (or Coralie Biolay, if you prefer her real name) took some time to give birth to daughter Iris, getting a divorce from Iris’ dad, recording a children’s songbook and appearing on various tributes. She did write her own songs during the years, but up until recently didn’t find the time to record them. With help from brother Benjamin Biolay and Etienne Daho, ‘La Belle Affaire’ is a sweet, sticky and sunny album – one that helps you get through the coming fall.
It is not as jazzy as her (still beautiful) début, it’s not as rock-y as her (still great) sophomore album and not as exotic (or should I say quixotic, given that it was recorded with a lot of toy instruments) as her last effort. La Belle Affaire is FillesSourires-music as we like it. Prominent plopping bass, gentle guitar-strumming, some piano, ukelele and bells. Brigitte Bardot, early Françoise Hardy, early Jane Birkin, the most recent Elodie Frégé album, that’s the spirit here.
Four songs really stick out: ‘Trois fois rien’, with it’s tender bells, the twangy ‘Eléphant Noir’ (this twangin’ guitar pops up a lot on the album, which is good), the tango of ‘Sur mes yeux’ and the superbreathy ‘Tes nuits pâles’, the best track on the album. The video above is for ‘A demi mot’, also on the album.
There’s a by-the-numbers ‘reprise’ of ‘Mon Amie la Rose’ (Hardy) that, apart from it’s country-waltzy tempo, doesn’t add anything to the original. Really bad (badbadnotgood) is the cover of Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence. The Franglais isn’t charming, the arrangement rather dull. If you ask me, it’s a stain on a highly charming, breathy and sexy album.
Coralie Clément – Les nuits pâles
Canadian label Audiogram decided to celebrate it’s 30th birthday by asking it’s roster to re-record their bestest song in an intimate setting. The result, a double album, is accompanied by black and white videos. We cherry picked our faves: