An electronic version of the disco classic Stayin’
Alive sees Christine and the Queens start 2024 in style. Safe to say the Bee
Gees song is totally owned by Héloïse Letissier and friends.
The drama
plays out on the streets and canals of Venice, a place no stranger to masked
theatricality, in a video that Chris directed.
It perhaps
marks the turning of a page. 2023 saw the release of his Paranoïa, Angels, True Love album, an ambitious collection of work
that might not have had the commercial success of earlier releases, but certainly
made up for it in artistry. The year also saw performances including Coachella
and Rock en Seine festivals as part of a world tour, but also the cancellation
of the end of that tour.
It’s not the
first time Christine and the Queens have dropped a jaw-dropping cover version, think
of their version of Paradis perdus on
Chaleur Humaine or Freedom ’90 on the Joseph EP.
I wouldn't be surprised if some found Paranoïa, Angels, True Love a bit too challenging, but it's a rewarding and rich album and one that will be looked back on favourably. But for those who didn't quite get the album when it came out, this new release will remind tem exactly why Christine remains an essential artist.
Sad to hear of the passing of Jean-Louis Murat at the age of 71,
one of France’s finest singer- songwriters.
While his late 80s/early 90s releases Cheyenne Autumn and >Le
Manteau de pluie are rightly regarded as among his finest releases,
I’ve always loved Murat Live. I purchased it not long after it came out
and it’s probably the Murat album I return to the most often. I may not
have always kept up with his every release, but I have kept on coming back to Murat Live since I bought it.
I’ll admit it was one of the albums that opened up the possibilities
of French music to me. I was already familiar with the likes of Trust from my
earlier metal listening years, and since then others ranging from Noir Desir to
Jarre via Gainsbourg and Christophe and Brel had broadened my musical horizons,
but when I came to Murat Live it
seemed to be exactly what I needed to be listening to.
By the time I picked it up - it must have been 1996 - I was well
into considering myself a musical sophisticate. I was into the likes of Nick
Cave and Leonard Cohen, I was informed by Dylan and Tom Wait, listening to jazz
and electronics. I’m pretty sure I picked up Murat Live in Paris the same day I bought the then-newly-released Klaus
Schulze Are You Sequenced. I had
eagerly graduated from metal to a broader taster in indie, prog, art rock, jazz
and the like through a thorough interrogation of the back catalogues of the usual
suspects.
I was probably insufferable.
Murat Live turned my
head around. He had the style and the sound, delivering something that the
likes of Daniel Lanois had promised, a stripped-down organic rawness that while
uncluttered and direct wasn’t afraid to use a sophisticated colour palette where
it was needed. Combine this with poetry at a Cave or Cohen level and I was
intoxicated. While these ingredients could easily be combined into bland
sophistication or pretentious arrogance, the music retained a compelling
urgency and approachability.
I can only think of a couple of times I’ve bought an album without
hearing it before and it’s had such an impact on me. Scott Walker sings Jacques Brel and Miles Davis The Columbia Years were two of those occasions. Murat Live was another. I’d heard his
cover of Cohen’s Avalanche on the Les
Inrocks-curated I’m Your Fan collection
and was curious to hear more, his French version taking one of Cohen’s more
enigmatically poetic works to another level and making it somehow his song.
The Murat Live album immediately
fascinated me. It still does. Seemingly without effort it outmanoeuvred my
youthful pretensions and challenged my assumptions. “You think that stuff you’re
listening to is cool? Check this out!” it seemed to say. “Here’s something you’ve
not read about in the NME that you’ll love” It added enthusiastically, like an
older brother with a mysterious collection of records you’ve never seen before
or heard on the radio.
There was no point being precious or acting superior
about music, Murat Live showed there
was something you’d probably love out there that you just hadn’t heard
yet.
That music like this existed almost without any recognition in the
anglosphere disappointed me, I would continue to return to Murat Live as proof of what seemed like a secret only a few of us
knew about, that music in France could be everything I was hoping music could
be. Another of the experiences that would eventually lead to me writing and
thinking about French music and trying to share this enthusiasm.
I may not have followed Murat’s releases with the loyalty one
might expect given my reaction to Murat Live
but I had a wider field now. What I knew before about music before wasn’t wrong,
but it was only the start. It would always only ever be the start of a movie with
no closing credits but with an incredible cast and no end of plot twists.
There
were artists like Dominique A, Alain Bashung, Grand Corps Malade, Damien Saez
as well as the likes of Louise Attaque as well as an exploding French rap scene
to dive into. Murat Live probably finally persuaded me that there was astonishing
work coming out in France, and I was unafraid to embrace it
I was surprised to read Murat had died at 71. He always seemed
younger than that, a bit older than me but far from old. But we’re all older
than we think. I’m no longer the young guy slouching from disquaire to librairie
in Paris. I’ll listen to the album again and rather than wallow in nostalgia for
those days, I’ll also listen to something new that’s come out in France that I’ve
never heard before.
Picture of Jean-Louis Murat in 2010 by Vincent Desjardins
A great opportunity to question music legend Mick harvey about his Serge Gainsbourg cover albums at an event at the Institut Francais du Royaume-Uni in London tomorrow night.
Mick Harvey has of course had an astonishing career beyond these albums, as a founder member of Australian band The Birthday Party who were one of the pioneering acts in the in the UK and Europe in the aftermath of punk. He continued to work with Birthday party vocalist Nick Cave as a founder member of the Bad Seeds where he was a cornerstone of the band for 25 years.
He was also an integral part of the band Crime and the City Solution, who released several albums throughout the 80s but never really got the recognition they deserved.
His first solo album was a collection of Serge Gainsbourg covers entitled Intoxicated Man released in 1995, where he performed some of Serge's best known songs in English. He followed this with a second volume of Gainsbourg covers in 1997 entitled Pink Elephants.
I'm pretty sure it was Harvey's covers that helped introduce Gainsbourg to many of those who now hold his work dear. Gainsbourg was very much an unknown in the UK for much of his career despite his success at the end of the 60s. At best he was regarded by many simply as a novelty act or a one hit wonder. Mick Harvey showed that Gainsbourg was a genius in any language.
June 2016 saw the release of a third volume of Gainsbourg covers - Delerium tremens. A fourth volume is in the pipeline and scheduled for release early in 2017.
Tomorrow night Mick Harvey will be speaking about this and the two previous releases with author Simon Price, about his relationship with Gainsbourg's work and the challenges of his legacy.
A teaser today for new video by Pharrell Williams featuring Daft Punk, for the track Gust of Wind.
Will it match the success of last year's collaboration?
Uncertain as let's be honest, Randon Access Memories was quite a special moment for both these artists and the others involved, so it might be a case of hoping lighting strikes twice.
But certainly the odds are good, and both Daft Punk and Pharrell are at the peak of their game at the moment so it's without a doubt possible.
Until the full release, an brief teaser video has emerged.
Renaud has become the latest French performer to have his work re-interpreted by a new generation of artists on an album.
The singer might not have released an album since 2009's Molly Malone, but the new La bande à Renaud collection sees singers like Nolwenn Leroy, Coeur de Pirate and Raphaël and Carla Bruni pay tribute by covering his songs.
Renaud is a French artist who achieved a certain amount of notorierty in the UK in the 1980s with his song Miss Maggie, concerning Margaret Thatcher who was then at the peak of her powers.
His most recent release was a complete collection box set in 2012.
In previous years, the Génération Goldman collections showcasing the work of Jean-Jacques Goldman were among the biggest selling albums in France, both topping the charts in France.
Obviously there are hopes that the same kind of success will come to this new collection. The strength of Renaud's material will go some way to make that a certainty.
