Customer Reviews

Best of

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Birkin has a limited voice. Gainsbourgh was a troubled man. When they worked together it produced unqualified magic. He was brilliant and she was patient. Thier work is touching and ethereal. Don't expect fireworks...just sit back and appreciate his poetry and her earnest effort to express it.

Poor production quality and barely 30 minutes of music. Poor value, oversold and overpriced.

2011 has been a return of sorts for all things Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. First there was the excellent French bio-pic "Gainsbourg: Vie Heroic", which made me listen back to Serge's music. Then there was the unexpected announcement that Jane Birkin was going to tour the US (more on that later), which made me relisten to Jane's "Di Doo Dah" album from 1973 and then I ordered this CD.

"The Best of Jane Birkin" (19 tracks; 72 min.) is an outstanding collection of just about everything you'll ever want in your record collection on Jane Birkin. It starts with the seminal 1969 hit "Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus" with Serge Gainsbourg, and then brings the many highlights from Jane's solo career. Just to name a few: "Ex-Fan des Sixties", "Ballade de Johnny-Jane", "Yesterday Yes A Day", "Con C'est Con Ces Consequences", "Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je M'en Vais", "La Javanaise", and on and on. The vast majority of these songs were of course written by Serge Gainsbourg. Extremely helpful is that the booklet contains the lyrics to the songs. As is often the case with the songs written by Serge Gainsbourg, much of the lyrics turn on word-play and/or double-entendre and so to be able to follow along (assuming you understand French of course) really improves the enjoyment of this compilation. If there is one must-have song missing on this compilation, it is the 1971 hit with Serge "La Decadence". However, that song is one of the bonus tracks of the recently reissued "Di Doo Dah" album, which is probably Jane's best stand-alone album anyway, and so I'd recommend you buy that album as well.

As to Jane Birkin's recent US tour, I had the good fortune of seeing her at the 9:30 CLub in Washington, DC just last week, and what a performance she and her 4 piece back-up band put on. They played for 2 hours, bringing many of the songs you'll find on this "Best of", and Jane brought them with grace and humor, sharing tons of stories about life with Serge and how these songs came about. An unforgettable evening! Meanwhile, this "Best of" is highly recommended!

from "je t'aime moi non plus" too "lolita go home", Gainsgour is the only one. Birkin is the only one to sing Gainsbourg's song. from"La décadence" to "je t'aime moi non plus" birkin is the only one to be able to sing these notes. La muse amusée, The muse amused. If you undersand french, you can sing it. You want to lean french, try her.

Je vous aime, moi non plus.

I will never be able to figure out how it is that someone with the musical instinct of Serge Gainsbourg would ever get into his head that this woman should be encouraged to sing. She was lovely to look upon, and a very good breather, I grant you, but a singer she most certainly is not.

I could have sworn I had this one, so I went to look for it because I wanted to hear somehing on it (since I thought I had it) again before passing judgement on it. Didn't find it. Amazon's records say I have four ( count 'em: 4) of hers, and this isn't one of them--and I can find all four and Amazon is right! And I have on my four, among other things: Je t'aime, ni moi non plus; Fuir Le Bonheur de Peur Que; Ballade de Johnny Jane; and Ex-Fan des Sixties, all of which are on this one, and I'm not getting this one too. These just mentioned, however, and many others, I personally think she can sing well enough so that, as what they are in the first place, they're fine. However, on what I do have (which has Love for Sale, for example), she can be terrible in English--as to all of: the choice of song, how she presents herself and her delivery and entire style of singing, right down to and including the arrangement. Also, another one, she absolutely cannot sing which is NOT on the above track listings, and which I have on more than one, is La DecadanSe (don't you understand the song? either? ). Also, there is a limit to how much I can take (eternally? no, thank God) of HIS songs, for which reason A La Legere is very refreshing (and has several I like, notably: Les Avalanches, Les Cles Du Paradis, Si Tout Etait Faux, and Trouble, none of which were written by him, all of which are done well enough by her and everyone involved. Also, lets face it, unless you are glamourizing people with problems to such an extent that you are glamourizing their problems (or are doing that anyway for other reasons) you know or should know that: 1. drinking yourself into the grave at any age is to be avoided 2. ditto smoking 3. ditto drugs). The fact that someone with such problems (especially the first and the third, although the second will kill ya' too) accomplishes something, whether creatively or otherwise, doesn't make those problems acceptable. Same goes for "womanizing"--it's neither glamourous nor acceptable. (Sorry.) This kind of stuff, therefore, has limited appeal--but it's definitely not no appeal. That said, for something new and different, and just possibly better, and at least "now", of Jane Birkin, I'd try A la Legere.