How French ARE Your Fries?

5.19.10

5:06 pm

Had my iPod on shuffle the other day, not something I usually do with 10,000 plus bits of sonic falderal ranging from audio books to stand up comics to over 1,000 random live tracks of varying quality by varying bands, but a Charlotte Gainsbourg song I'd never heard came on.

I identified it by it's sleepy piano/guitar background as being from her first album, "5:55", the one she did with Air and was about to skip it when the chorus hit and it got very interesting.

I decided, since I liked her second album so much and that I'd never really given the first one a chance, to listen to it today.

I'm a little less than halfway though and I must say it's walking a fine line between boring and subtle.

The music is quite repetitive but it's just faceted enough to keep you listening, barley.

There are some songs firmly on the other side of that thin line, but I have yet to actually skip anything.

That isn't fair.

Pretty much every song (so far) has typical Air piano and soft guitar in the background with Charlotte's high, breathy vocals on top.

There was a song about the magic of being drunk on a plane that's crashing and another using heart surgery as a metaphor for love.

I'll reserve judgment until I finish it 

7:03 pm

All right, I finished it.

Turns out, drifting back through the album after the initial listen, that there is some more stuff in these songs, but it's hiding.

A bass line here, a drum track there, but you have to work for it.

As someone who has listened to Nine Inch Nails' "The Fragile" hundreds of times in the ten plus years it's been out, I'm not going to fault the artists for asking the listener to invest some time and attention in their work.

Just as "IRM" is Beck with CG singing, "5:55" is Air with CG singing, but the more mellow Air that tends to lose me.

CG's vocals do keep it more interesting though, and she speaks (sings) English in such an interesting accent, very compelling.

And, as I had hoped, later in the album there are a few tracks with more energy and depth (and instruments) to them (one sounding like Air pretending they're Beck).

Some tracks that jump out a bit are: AF607105 (AKA the song about the magic of being drunk on a crashing airplane), Jamais, Everything I Cannot See and Set Yourself On Fire (a bonus track).

Honestly, this album makes me want to hear her other album.

At least it doesn't make me want to poop or anything, so that's good.

I watched Sherlock Holmes the other night.

Good to see Guy Richie is able to make a successful film without Cockney's saying "cunt".

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I'm so happy Robert Downey Jr. is off the stuff; he's too fun not to be an actor.

Richie is doing the sequel in...2012? So that should be good.

And the actor (excellent actor) that played the antagonist in SH, Mark Strong is playing Sinestro in the Green Lantern movie.

So at least he'll be good. 

Oh, and listen to the new George Washington Diarrhea song, "BAILY".

S'creamy.