Bande a Part

Nouvelle Vague, Gerald Toto | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 22, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Luaka Bop
• ASIN: B000GGSMFS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #85,302 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

In 2005, the French duo's eponymous debut introduced their singular take on post-punk nuggets by the likes of Joy Division, Depeche Mode, Tuxedo Moon, and The Undertones, recasting them as svelte, sophisticated bossa nova-inflected chansons. This follow-up is a beguiling, retro-futurist odyssey, containing covers of Echo & The Bunnymen, The Buzzcocks, Lords Of The New Church, Billy Idol, U2, Blondie, New Order, The Cramps, Bauhaus, The Smiths, and more. "...a beautiful, melancholy exercise in deconstructing familiar songs and reassembling trace amounts of the melodies into fresh music" - Boston Globe. "Fresh (and refreshing) takes on these classics...The songs are so wildly different in their dreamy form that they stand on their own" - Flaunt.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ridiculously Good, August 30, 2006

By 

Valerie A. Higgs "Madrina" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bande a Part-Limited (Audio CD)

This new Nouvelle Vague CD, Bande a Part, is ridiculously good. So far I'm only on track 4, and all I have to say is HOLY MOLY this is a yummy CD!! They cover "new wave/alternative/post punk" songs from the 80s--Bauhaus, Echo and the Bunnymen, Buzzcocks, Blondie, Billy Idol, New Order with a twist: set to a Latin rhythm for the most part. (I had never heard of this band until a few weeks ago, and apparently they have three CDs out now. Whoops!)

Heard "Heart of Glass" oiginally and thought to myself, "clever." I then heard "The Killing Moon" and loved it. I also liked "Fade to Grey" a lot but I have totally fallen in love with "Don't Go." Once I listen to that a couple hundred times, I'll move on to "Dancing with Myself!"

Now, aside from Billy Idol, Blondie and U2, I haven't heard much of the other groups, though I know that they were huge back in the 80s (sorry, as a teen in suburbs of NJ, I grew up solely on top twenty pop, unfortunately, until I went to college). I religiously watched John Hughes movies, so I had a passing acquaintance with the artists who created this music. And I owned the "Pretty in Pink" soundtrack, so I knew who the Psychedelic Furs and Echo and the Bunnymen were. I also knew some New Order stuff.

I worked with a cool girl who was a huge fan of Bauhaus and I hung out with her a bit and listened to a lot of their stuff. She also introduced me to Ska (Philly style), and I started hanging out at a post-punk/alternative club seconds before the Seattle grunge scene hit.

I'm saying all of this to say that I haven't been COMPLETELY ignorant of alternative music of the late 70s and 80s!! What this CD is saying to me is taking a piece of music and changing it to suit a different style with brilliant results shows you the quality of the song to begin with.

Now I'm going to have to go back and pick up some of this stuff in its original form.

If you're sick of listening to chicks sing about how hot they are and how much hotter they are than the other girls, and dudes rapping and singing about how they're going to have sex with you six different ways from Sunday, pick up this CD. Seriously.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High-quality Continental Eclectic!, September 20, 2006

By 

Hornblower Stan (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bande a Part-Limited (Audio CD)

Caught these beautiful people in a private broadcast session from Seattle's Bumber Shoot festival last month and had to have the CD--does not disappoint!

High quality eclectic musicianship includes willowy vocals, percussion master equally facile with hands or sticks, tasteful guitar. Very fresh. Yessss!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Catchy!, April 9, 2007

By 

A. McDaniel (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bande a Part-Limited (Audio CD)

I'm one of the listeners who isn't totally familiar with most of the 70s/80s originals ... and maybe because of that I really find that this album stands alone. The 'Nouvelle Vague' style given to all of these covers is intriguing and definitely catchy. Those who like bossa nova and the new soft-voiced European style should check into this album. The vocals unexpectedly drew me in and captured me after several listens ... but the instrumentation is excellent. Relaxing. Two tracks - 'Dance With Me' and 'O Pamela' - stand out in this album, both for their bittersweet intrigue. After listening to the album several times through, though, it was 'Ever Fallen in Love' and 'Escape Myself' that really stuck in my head ... so that later on I'd find myself humming different parts from these two ... and then have to listen to them again just to get them right. Bande a Part is standalone ... but I myself bought it with Nouvelle Vague's self-titled cd, so I feel that these two really go hand-in-hand, with the consistent style. Both are definitely keepers -- I can listen to them over and over regularly, and haven't tired of them yet.