Trying to maintain the escapist mode for my own sanity so I’ll highlight two releases I received last week. Neither album is a complete, satisfying meal, but as amuse-bouche offerings, they are quite satisfying.

I guess Blue Note’s Keren Ann marketing in the United States succeeded swimmingly, because – this must be a first in recent times – the second album from Coralie Clement, Bye Bye Beauté, seems to appear on our shores in synch with European release. Clement’s 2001 debut, Salle Des Pas Perdus, was a breezy romp through decidedly pre-60’s French chanson, art song, Django guitar jazz, and a charismatic and easygoing café vibe.

Her vocal style is definitely a bit wispy but this has been selling in Europe and Japan for generations and is actually quite endearing. Besides, she’s always backed up by her big brother, Benjamin Biolay, master songwriter/arranger/producer/ and multi-instrumentalist.

So Bye Bye Beauté definitely reflects le frere’s current obsessions, psychedelic folk pop, trippy road movie vibe, and confessionals by candlelight. And I must say lil’ sis Coralie’s vocals rise perfectly to the part. And the album even rocks a bit…. And they say the French don’t know how to do that.

In the US, the album, out this week, is being marketed as “recommended for fans of Ivy, Stereolab, Nada Surf, and the Velvet Underground.” It all sounds a bit broad and dumb to me but I do know Kahimi Karie fans will eat this up.

Keren Ann collaborated with Coralie Clement several times and also famously went out with and was svengalied by big brother Benjamin Biolay, but oddly enough its her self-produced (post-break-up) work, Not Going Anywhere, and the soon to be released (?) Nolita, the product of her recent residency in NYC, that are finding a wide audience in the US. Maybe it helps that the multilingual Dutch/Israeli/Indonesian beauty raised n Paris can sing in an English that can resonate with US audiences. Or maybe the yanks are responding to her neo-Suzanne Vega vibe, which is actually something that I don’t entirely dig.

Which is why I much prefer Keren Ann’s collaborations with Bardi Johannsson from Iceland (yeah , props to my heritage!). In Europe, Johannsson is well known for his project Bang Gang. Well, in 2003, he teamed up with Keren Ann to produce the Lady & Bird project. By album name alone, initially it sounded to me like some French proverb, like La Cigalle et la Fourmi, or maybe some masculine-feminine heroin-jazz tribute, since the Lady & Bird seems to reference the popular titles attributed to Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker.

So-o, its actually more like the French proverb, and here’s the translated press copy:

The legend of Lady & Bird

Lady & Bird, two creatures whose origins are lost in the mists of time, have chosen to inhabit the bodies of human adults so that they might experience earthly pleasures. In recent times, they have been residing in the forms of two colourful characters: an Israeli-born Dutch woman named Keren Ann and Iceland’s Bardi Johannsson (Bang Gang). When the two musicians met, they chose to reveal themselves in a resolute attempt to summon up a magical world – born of music and amusement – so gentle and innocent that it inevitably conjures up images of childhood.

Sessions for this album (including covers of two timeless classics, The Velvet Underground’s Stephanie Says and Suicide is Painless, the theme from the movie M*A*S*H*) took place in Paris, Reykjavik, and Brussels.

Lady & Bird write, compose, and produce from within their own tiny paradise, which they give us a glimpse of: halfway between dream and reality, it is an inspirational place that, more than any other, tempts you to stay.

Listen to the story of Lady & Bird…
The legend of Lady & Bird

Whatever. Sounds pretentious. But the Lady & Bird project is actually really satisfying and beautiful psych/folk/pop. The covers of Lou Reed’s “Stephanie Says” and the M*A*S*H* song – yikes it isn’t clichéd anymore, has the theme to “Friends” replaced it in the public re-run consciousness? - are spot-on, poignant and oddly without irony, and the originals on the rest of the album are absolutely sublime! And it works well both as a concept album and as a collaboration. Divinely trippy and beautiful harmonizing.

Word is that the two have been working together quite a bit and I look forward to the product! And lets get some Bang Gang released in the US soon!

Comments

[shesbitter]

i really like the coralie clement, thanks for the link. and you're right about her stuff being eaten up by kahimi karie fans-- or this one, at least!

[Christine]

I agree completely about Keren Ann and Lady & Bird. I wanted to like 'Not Going Anywhere' so much but I don't. So I was relieved when I discovered Lady & Bird, which I do actually like. 'Not Going Anywhere' really frustrates me - such a pretty sound, but the melodies are so stagnant. I just want them to rise or vary a little in places. She's so often described as Francoise Hardy meets Suzanne Vega, which really is a troublesome mix IMO.