Please recommend some french songs to me

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esp. soft/comfortable stuff

thanks in advance

― sindy, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You should probably seek out some Serge Gainsbourg stuff, or maybe dig deeper for some cabaret favorites like Jacques Brel and/or Edith Piaf. Ain't nothin' Frencher than that.

Contemporary-wise, there's MOON SAFARI by Air, which is as soft and comfortable as the day is long.

― Alex in NYC, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

screw serge...

go and get a harmonium album

― geeg, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

you must-must-MUST get julie doiron's "desormais", on jagjaguwar. lovely, soft, folk-indie stuff.

valerie lamercier is good too

― sean, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah yeah yeah, but you really need some Francoise Hardy. Best is her late 60s album, all fuzy ballads and beeeeeeyootiful singing 'Ma jeunesse fout le camp' (sp.), then her early 70s one'La question', which is a bit darker. Actual songs: 'Voila', 'Qui peut dire' and she does a gorgeous cover of 'Suzanne' by Leonard Cohen.

Jacques Brel is worth checking out too, his killer songs are 'Ne me quitte pas' and 'Voir un ami pleurer'.

For Serge, 'Initals BB' is great shiney 60s pop and 'Melody Nelson' is a great paedophilic 70s prog opera.

For a couple of obscure 60s pop classics get 'Sept heures du matin' by Jacqueline Taieb, and Gillian Hills 'Tut tut tut'.

Also, Michel Polnareff has a patchy track record but 'la bal des laze' is a french gothic cathedral pomp-rock classic.

These are all on Soulseek (my user id is nic_he_ian) if you so desire.

― Ian, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I recommend, as a start, the Bonjour La France compilations. They are usually pretty cheap and you get two cds. They have a good mix of French pop.

― A Nairn, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Check out Fugu - they have toured with Stereolab

Beautiful orchestrated pop

― sonicred, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've heard a few Coralie Clement tracks that sound like what you're looking for.

― armando, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i second julie dorion's "desormais" album - beautiful record. also francois breut's album of last year was pretty fantastic as well. april march does a good stab at the classic ye ye girl sound too. for the real thing you can't beat serge - his album with anna karina is rather wonderful in every way - or francoise hardy...

― commonswings, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

screw serge...
Ew, necrophiliac groupie. Serge is great. Histoire De Melody Nelson is my pick. Polnareff's quite good.

― nathalie, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

After you've checked out Serge Gainsbourg and Françoise Hardy (assuming you will) the next best contemporary thing is Etienne Daho, a Breton singer/songwriter with a nice line in pop melancholy who's been recording for twenty years now. 1992's Paris Ailleurs and 2000's Corps et Armes are masterpieces.

― Jorge Mourinha, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't think Michel Polnareff's all that patchy really, as long as you stick to the Sixties and early Seventies stuff. Get a compilation with the big hits and the album Polnareffs. His melodies and his vocals are just gorgeous. He soars, he swoons, he's the greatest. He's soft and comfortable, but very melodramatic at times. And though his records kinda took a dive in the mid-Seventies, he was still a pretty snappy dresser. The bitter rivalry between him and Ian Hunter over the chunky sunglasses and corkscrew curls look reminds me the Courtney vs. Kat dress feud of the early 90s.
France Gall's stuff is very poppy and a bit perverse, especially the Serge Gainsbourg-written stuff. Try the albums Les Sucettes or 1968.
Oh, you said songs. How about: Michel Polnareff: "La Poupee Qui Fait Non", "Sous Quelle Etoile Suis-Je Ne", "Histoire de Coeur", "Beatnick", "Oh Louis" (on the sassier side), "L'oiseau de Nuit". "Les Desert Nest Plus en Afrique". and, as Ian mentioned "Le Bal des Laze". And France Gall: "Baby Pop", ""Let Sucetttes", "La Guerre des Chansons", "Cet-air La", "Teenie Weenie Boppie", "Made in France", "Merci, Herr Marquis."
― Arthur, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've never done that before. How exciting.
― Arthur, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

does this fix it?Hmm.

― Arthur, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

if you dig it slightly eccentric, brigitte fontaine's 'comme a la radio' is a tasty listen. some african rhythms and nice jazzy basslines, with a breathy french woman, who's you know is probably saying something interesting. but, obviously, you do'nt speak a fucking word of french.

― matthew james, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm with Ian: Ma Jeunesse... is a must-buy; if not, the Vogue Years double comp is a bargain. Try SG's Comic Strip comp (Requiem Pour Un Con predates Massive Attack by 30 years!) & for some real teenybop stuff, early France Gall, & if you can get your hand on the Swinging Mademoiselle comps... Etienne Daho is a personal fave for more recent stuff (Eden or his St Etienne collaboration).

― Jez, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

oh, and 'ca plane pour moi' by plastic bertrand. the zenith of punk.

― matthew james, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

bien's ep 'bien'

the french cocteau twins, wonder where they went off to?

― keith, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Soft/comfortable stuff"??? Anyhow, go download Maman a Tort by Mylene Farmer.

― Ally, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'ca plane pour moi' by plastic bertrand. the zenith of punk.

Might be, but they're still Belgian, not French.

― Siegbran Hetteson, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There's also Les Occidentaux - think an existentialist Blue Nile (Hats era) combined with French elegance and spleen (you can actually notice Rimbaud and Baudelaire wafting by). They only ever did one album that I heard of, about eight or ten years ago, but it's really good. Marquis de Sade and its follow-up bands (Marc Seberg and Philippe Pascale) are also worth checking out - unfortunately most of their records seem to be out of print.

― Jorge Mourinha, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mylene Farmer. Soft and sultry and lots of nice tunes.

― Daniel, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll second (or third) the France Gall recommendations. Basically, anything she did up until 1968 (the Phillips years) is good. After that, very patchy indeed IMO although a lot of it certainly fits your "soft/comfortable" description.

I've been listening to loads of stuff on the Tricatel label recently. This is Bertrand Burgalat's label, and he writes, produces and plays on quite a few of the releases too. In addition to his own stuff, which is very nice (although he's not a great singer), he put out the Valerie Lemercier LP. The sampler LP "Au Coeur du Tricatel" is excellent. But the very best thing he's put out so far IMO is April March's "Chrominance Decoder" album. Get this.

― Jeff W, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mr. Oizo, if you feel a little too soft/comfortable.

― Orange, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Try Diabologum's "Le Goût du Jour". Arty indierock. Very much like the first Velvet Underground. One of my favourite French albums of all times. Gainsbourg's "L'Homme à Tête de Chou" with the most poetic lyrics on sex and the female body I know being another one. Quite cool are also Tue-Loup. Their first two albums ("La Bancale" and "La Belle Inutile") are very relaxed a little bit in the vein of Idaho but less depressive. And check out Miossec's still fresh sounding phantastic first album "Boire" if you are interested in French singer/songwriters. My favourite Jacques Brel album is still his swan song "Les Marquises". If you like Joy Division Kat Onoma from Strasbourg is a safe bet.

― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

belgian is still usually within the french language culture, so it counts as far as i'm concerned.

― matthew james, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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