Chanson française

May 22, 2008 5:50 PM

Fancy a whirlwind tour of Popular Chanson? A broad term referring to contemporary French popular music, "chanson" applies to a startling array of stuff. Just how broad do I mean? Let's start with Grand Corps Malade, sublime slam poet/lyricist. Les voyages en train. Quatre saisons.

Bénabar can best be described as a consummate performer à la Georges Brassens with songs at once cynical and sentimental. Quatre murs et un toit. Le dîner. La station Mir.

As mentioned in this very recent post, Dionysos is a big name, with an impressive catalogue marked by an experimental spirit and a wide variety of influences. La métamorphose de Mister Chat. Song for Jedi. Tes lacets sont des fées.

Olivia Ruiz, featured in the video in the previous post and the girlfriend of Dionysos' frontman Mathias Malzieu, made quite a name for herself before collaborating with his band. J'aime pas l'amour. J'traîne des pieds.

Babet, former member of Dionysos, has recently released her solo album. Le marin. C'est quand déjà?

Thomas Dutronc, the dreamy offspring of Françoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc, has proven himself worthy of being the union of such legendary progenitors. J'aime plus Paris. Comme un manouche sans guitare.

Tryo, with roots in reggae and political lyrics, are a nice departure from the previous. Serre-moi. L'hymne de nos campagnes. G8.

Grab bag: Noir Désir - Le vent nous portera (deserving of their own post, really). Manu Chao - Rainin' in Paradize. (he grew up in France) Anaïs - Mon coeur, mon amour.

posted by nonmerci (13 comments total)

Nice collection. Sanseverino doesn't make the cut?
posted by mumkin at 6:04 PM on May 22, 2008

La métamorphose de Mister Chat is one of the best song titles I have ever seen. After that, the actual song could only disappoint... so imagine my surprise when it utterly rocked!
posted by RokkitNite at 6:10 PM on May 22, 2008

Thanks for the link, mumkin. That's a radical song. It would be cool if this thread could turn into one of those "Check this out!" type FPPs. (Though I have to wonder why the scale is in pounds and not kilograms?)

That's easily my favorite Dionysos song, RokkitNite. It's so...weird. And awesome.
posted by nonmerci at 6:16 PM on May 22, 2008

Ça plane pour moi.
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:19 PM on May 22, 2008

In a similar vein, Pallas Athena: Mano Negra - Mala Vida.
posted by nonmerci at 6:24 PM on May 22, 2008

It reminded me of all the awesome knockabout stuff that bands like Bearsuit and Deerhoof do... except there was a goddamn ukelele right at the centre of it all. It literally could not have ticked more boxes for me. Thanks for this. Brilliant post!
posted by RokkitNite at 6:58 PM on May 22, 2008

Great post. don't forget Jeanne Cherhal and Emily Loiseau
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 8:15 PM on May 22, 2008

Oh la la, c'est quoi ca? Bon, on y va!
posted by blue_beetle at 8:36 PM on May 22, 2008

Awesome post! I wish people would do stuff like this for more countries. It can be difficult to get started when you want to explore good foreign music.

Also, I can't help but notice how beautiful many of these videos are. It's sad we can't get anything of this quality in the states.
posted by switchsonic at 1:21 AM on May 23, 2008

I love Camille. Her performance at Brussels' Nuits Botaniques last weekend was absolute gold, and in three albums she's gained quite a Björk-like reputation for treading the line between pop and performance art, notably for the album Le Fil which strings a capella tunes and beatbox percussion around a single note sustained throughout. New album Music Hole is sounding pretty great too. Ta Douleur ... Au Port ... Gospel with no Lord
posted by creeky at 1:39 AM on May 23, 2008

J'ai fait un gros projet/présentation sur "la bonne chanson" de Bretagne et Québec pour une classe l'automne passé et si j'écoute une autre chanson traditionelle comme ça il serai trop tôt. Certainement la "chanson populaire" est mieux... j'espère.
posted by loiseau at 11:10 AM on May 23, 2008

Desolé... il sera.
posted by loiseau at 11:10 AM on May 23, 2008

Tu m'etonnes, loiseau. :) Je crois que la chason populaire est au moins plus accessible !
posted by nonmerci at 12:43 PM on May 23, 2008