Mylène Farmer: Innamoramento (it was between this and Avant Que L'Ombre) Ok, I know this is a bit like suddenly throwing Madonna into the thread... She's polarizing, but you can't deny Mylène's impact and longevity, and she's released some fantastic material along the way. Innamoramento (1999) is filled with great tracks and is a highlight of her career for me. Here's the video for one of the singles, Je Te Rends Ton Amour - one of the most controversial videos in Mylène's ongoing career of controversial videos. Fair warning for sensitive sensibilities: this one comes with plenty of religious imagery by way of demonic possession/rape/crucifixion and sooooo much blood. I think even YouTube makes you click an extra step to make sure you really want to watch it.
Gainsbourg collaborations: Jane Birkin et Serge Gainsbourg, Je t'aime... moi non plus - 1969 Jane Birkin, Di doo dah - 1973 Serge Gainsbourg et Brigitte Bardot, Bonnie and Clyde - 1968. France Gall, Baby Pop - 1968
No need to apologize, that's a great pop album - "Dessine-moi un mouton" is my fave "Innamoramento" track. By the way, I like the live performances on the Mylenium DVD even better. She has not released it on Blu ray, but she should!
I wouldn't know which is "the best" but this is my favorite (it's probably the best): Alain Bashung - Fantaisie Militaire (1998)
Haha - I'm generally more pop/AC-oriented than the average SHF-member, so I tend to try to soften the impact of my posts in various non-genre-specific threads for the classic/prog rock denizens! I try to get to Mylène concerts when I can, but unfortunately I couldn't make it to the Mylenium Tour shows despite it being one of my favorite MF albums. I missed 2019, too, so I'm happy to see she's announced she'll be performing a series of concerts again in 2023. Watch out, there's ~35+ years of material that you'll find yourself starting to want to seek out... Innamoramento's a great album to start with, and has a little more of an ethereal vibe than others. Anamorphosée is a more mainstream pop-rock album, and Avant Que L'Ombre is a throwback of sorts to her earlier albums with lots of religion and death and regret and hope to it. She's not all dark and morbid, though - there's plenty of fun and sex in her material, too. More recent albums (from the last 10-15 years) lean into a little more of a dance influence (without going overboard), and also see her collaborate beyond her primary musical partner Laurent Boutonnat, with whom she worked almost exclusively in her early career. There's even some Moby, Seal, and Sting in there. Basically, there's lots of great material to discover. I'm kind of jealous! Mylène's music videos are mini-movies unto themselves, particularly the earlier ones, and her live concerts are true events with no expense spared on the production. Here's L'Horloge, the final song performed at her Live 2019 shows - the woman knows how to end a concert with impact...
I'm going to start with Innamoramento, but I've also got a copy of Les Mots on the way so I can get a potted overview of her career up to 2001. And then proceed from there. I'm heading in -- pull me back out when I tug the rope three times! Looks like I'll be spending some time on YouTube watching videos too...
I am stupidly fond of this album. Reference points? Early 999 overlaid with a whole load of Nuggets-y Farfisa, Mott piano and Glam dynamics. Only saw them once in a London pub as part of a French Rock Week event. Smitten. Their other album is not all that tbh.
There's a relatively new triple greatest hits album but all the pre Innamoramento songs are more recent live versions.
I was going to include a Céline album, too (not sure if it would have been D'eux or not, but no one can deny how successful this album was), but I thought I'd probably pushed things too far already... Les Mots is a good overview of the first half of her career - you'll have to contend with some very '80s production on the earliest tracks, but it's part of their charm! Video-wise, a by no means exhaustive list of chronological highlights I'd suggest checking out, and thankfully the official YouTube channel seems to have done a good job curating most of the videos, including plenty of live ones as well: The connected video duo of Libertine / Pourvu Qu'elles Soient Douces (combined, an almost half-hour long mini-movie with a full 18th-century storyline complete with duels and murder, high production values, and lots of controversy...) Beyond My Control (another controversial video - sex, blood, devouring, etc. - and the song samples John Malkovich from Dangerous Liaisons) Désenchantée (ten minutes long with a big budget and a plot based around a riot in a concentration camp-type setting) L'Âme-stram-gram (eight minutes, based on a Chinese legend; Mylène plays mystical twins) F*** Them All (reprises a lot of symbology from her previous videos) Dégénération (lab subject Mylène exerts supernatural erotic power over a facility and they all end up in an orgy - it's kind of got a bit of Kylie's All The Lovers to it but more sinister; the story continues in her next video Si J'avais Au Moins, when she heals and liberates all the lab animals and then escapes into nature) I thought it was kind of a nice approach - one of my pet peeves with greatest hits album series is that so often, they reprise the same songs yet again and just add some more recent ones rather than continuing to release sequential albums (i.e., each release containing only the hits since the previous compilation). For Histoires De..., they still included lots of earlier tracks, but made it more of a new live greatest hits album, and then the other two discs are focused on all the more recent material. A bit odd in some ways, but it worked for me.
Back to the thread topic... Isabelle Boulay has a fantastic voice and has released lots of great songs over the years, although sometimes her material hasn't fully lived up to her voice. She has two particularly classic albums for me: États D'Amour (1998) (Je T'oublierai, Je T'oublierai; Le Saule; J'ai Mal À L'Amour; Tombée De Toi) and Mieux Qu'ici-Bas (2000), which is likely her best-selling album (Parle-Moi; Coeur Combat; C'était Notre Histoire; Où Tu T'en Vas?). Her 2000 live album Scènes D'Amour is also great, recorded primarily during Montréal's 1999 FrancoFolies festival and with lots of guest artists - her duets with Laurence Jalbert and France D'Amour are phenomenal (and seemingly impossible to find online!). She's Québecois, but I'm broadly interpreting "French album" so she fits for me... Here's Parle-Moi, the lead single from Mieux Qu'ici-Bas:
Too many to choose from but the one that I keep coming back to is this from 2013. A flawless collection of songs from one of France's best contemporary songwriters. The title track alone will have you hooked.
Emilie Simon~The Flower Book. Her last great album before she decided she was the reincarnation of Kate Bush and narrowed her ambitions.
If you like the Air lp you might like this, my favourite French LP. Isabelle Mayereau - Isabelle Mayereau Isabelle Mayereau – Isabelle Mayereau (1977, Vinyl)
Clearlight Symphony led by Cyrille Verdeaux - Great journey and of course GONG - always an experience
