Vanessa Paradis: Love Song

Great to hear a new single by Vanessa Paradis, which comes out ahead of a new album to be released in May.

The track Love Song is a sophisticated slice of seriously funky electro and certainly a stylish return for the singer who has since the 80s been one of the iconic French music stars.

Her forthcoming album, her sixth studio collection, sees her collaborating with producer and composer Benjamin Biolay, along with musical input from Mathieu Boogaerts, Adrien Gallo and Carl Barât.

It's hard to believe listening to her new single that her most recent full studio album was her 2007 Divinidylle collection.

True, she's not exactly been idle in recent years, with a live album, an acoustic album and a very busy film career that amongst many highlights included her part in the animation Un monstre à Paris, which also saw the release of the song La Seine, one of the biggest selling singles of 2011 in France.

Listening to this new track she's obviously kept up with what's been happening in the world of music. Rather than taking things easy, she's taken up the challenge of releasing something with a freshness that artists half her age would be pleased with.

Her new album Love Songs, which is expected to be a double album, is released on May 13.

Vanessa Paradis is also reported to be touring in the Autumn.

Vanessa Paradis and -M- sing La Seine in A Monster in Paris

If there is any contemporary French singer that is well known in the UK, it is Vanessa Paradis, on account of her late 80s/early 90s hits in the UK and her relationship with Johnny Depp.

She features in a new animated movie Un Monstre à Paris (A Monster in Paris), where she stars with Mathieu Chédid, better known as -M- , who also duets in this song, La Seine, from the soundtrack.

The 3D film, which is set in Paris in 1910 tells the story oa young film projectionist who along with inventor Raoul sets off to track down a monster that has been terrorising the city. They team up with Lucille, a cabaret singer, and an eccentric scientist and his monkey to save the monster from the local chief of police.

Others who lend their voices to the film include Matthew Géczy, Eric Judor and Ramzy Bedia.

The English language film also features Vanessa Paradis, but with other names including Catherine O'Hara, Danny Huston, and Adam Goldberg.

I'm not sure how they'll work songs into the English version, but if they miss them out it will be a pity. Be nice if they did an English audience version with the original singers, as it would give -M- a much- deserved higher profile outside the French-speaking (and French-singing) world.

It's a great song and if the English version of the film misses it out it will be much the poorer for it.

The film is directed by Bibo Bergeron, who has previously worked on films like Shark Tales and The Road to El Dorado, as well as Asterix in Britain and Asterix and the Big Fight.

The release of the film has been put back a couple of times, and was originally planned to have been released in April 2010, but is now expected to be released in October.