Various Artists: So Frenchy So Chic 2009 (Border)

 |   |  <1 min read

Vicelow: Mister Pom-Pom
Various Artists: So Frenchy So Chic 2009 (Border)

Billed as "the unofficial soundtrack to the French Film festival 2009" (and actually an Australian compilation so may bear absolutely no relation whatsoever to the French Film Festival we might have in New Zealand), this double disc scoops up such a wide swathe of breathy French pop, trip-hop, cool-kitsch and more that you can't help but like it.

The fact it opens with the terrific garageband/chic-hip 7 heures du mat by Jacqueline Taieb from '67 and includes artists like the quietly wonderful Barbara Carlotti, Melanie Pain of Nouvelle Vague (sort of Nancy Sinatra-meets-Neil Sedaka in Bjork's disco on Bruises), the Jose Gonzalez-like folk turn of Bense, Stella (with some cool dancefloor doo-pop from 1960) and so on means it covers a lot of Gallic bases with a wry sense of humour.

It isn't all in whispery French either: Meringue Alcohol and Us do a neat line in alt.indie pop on I Love The Way You Treat Me ("you're always late, you keep me waiting"), The Do have some whiny girly-pop (with an accordion) and Emily Loizeau switches from French to English and back in Sister. Jimmy is alt.country from the wide plains with lonely harmonica. Sporto Kantes' Concrete is very slinky, Feloche is just plain odd (with an accordion) and Rokia Traore is brilliantly minimal of the appropriately entitled Zen.

But mostly this is kinda cool, softly chic and lightly beguiling. No lager-madness rock music here, but plenty for poised pastis drinkers. 

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   World Music from Elsewhere articles index

WOMAD ARTIST 2015: Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino

WOMAD ARTIST 2015: Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino

Mauro Durante of the southern Italian band of the Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino laughs about the problem the group has, but also how they rise above it. “Many of our songs are written... > Read more

Sabrina Malheiros: New Morning; Deluxe Edition (Far Out/Southbound)

Sabrina Malheiros: New Morning; Deluxe Edition (Far Out/Southbound)

Regular readers of Elsewhere will know that not too much of that self-satisfied, cooler-than-you, breathy bossa gets a look in. It bores me witless. But here is an exception: this is cool for... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Chinatown, Singapore: Life in the lens

Chinatown, Singapore: Life in the lens

Among the trinkets and souvenirs at the Chinatown Heritage Centre in Singapore the photograph caught my eye: a lone boatman, standing up in his small craft, is rowing between some other vessels as... > Read more

LOST IN MUSIC, by GILES SMITH

LOST IN MUSIC, by GILES SMITH

Pop obsession can be tragic stuff: those long days in record shops searching for an obscure Flock of Seagulls 12-inch; the nights spent putting all your albums into alphabetical order (do solo... > Read more