Customer Reviews

Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp

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This album is a must-have for any fan of 60s French pop. Avoiding some of the disingenuous disposability of her earlier "yeh-yeh" era songs and the occasionally maudlin element of her later work, "Ma Jeunesse" is an impressively even album. It captures that wonderful time in French music where the technical strengths of the chanson tradition were able to blend with the best influences in mainstream pop in the UK and US to produce something uniquely of its time. Although many of the songs are tinged with a sense of loss, the sobriety is lifted throughout by the strong melodies, written by Hardy herself and a rich variety of collaborators. The highlight is "Des Ronds Dans L'Eau" from the film "Vivre Pour Vivre", a cascading and haunting tune, beautifully sung by Hardy. Like all great albums, "Ma Jeunesse" never rests on its laurels and continues to twist and turn all the way through to to the wistful "C'etait Charmant". I would recommend it both to aficionados and starters in French pop. Sad though that the genre's period of true greatness was so shortlived.

I actually heard Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp as backround music to a love scene in a movie and I had tears streaming down my cheeks by the end of the song. Hardy's voice has a very sensual quality to it - it really gets under your skin. To be played as background music or if you're down - it always seems to enhance the mood and quiet the soul.

This album is worth the price for the hard-to-find "Qui Peut Dire," one of the great rock and roll recordings of all time, in any language, in any country, by any artist. Also check out the fine cover version of the song by Outrageous Cherry (also available at Amazon).

Even if i prefer the previous opus of 1966,i also like this one that includes electric guitar backgrounds on a few tunes.FRANCOISE's romantism is still ever present throughout ,and she does sound more pop on this one without falling on the rock banana.I have never seen a more beautiful album cover.Does she look fabulous at 23 ? MA JEUNESSE FOUT LE CAMP and VOILA were the hits,but for me LA FIN DE L'ÉTÉ is the absolute clinger.It seems that that tune resumes FRANCOISE's life up to that time.

Let's just say that if you're into Dusty Springfield, Scott Walker, Arthur Lee & Love, Shangri-Las or the like and you are unfamiliar with Francoise Hardy...check this out immediately. The orchestra stabbed me, the guitars electrocuted me and Francoise Hardys singing kicked... Literally.

Here Francoise Hardy delivers what comes across as a concept album about lost love.
It may not have been intentional, after all, she's always wrote and sung about failed romance, but on this one, the songs all seem to flow gently from one the the next, and one gets the feeling that she's talking about the same person throughout the album.
There's not a bad song in there, a few are absolutely gorgeous, and each one of them is carries the same mood and sadness.

My favorite track is "Il n'y a pas d' amour heureux", an amazing poem by Louis Aragon, with music by George Brassens. The combination of Hardy's voice, the piano arpgeggios and the bleak, gloomy lyrics combine to make a stunning piece of work.
Hardy recorded this one in London, the arrangements are superb, some of them featuring Jimmy Page and "Big" JIm Sullivan.

"Very pleased". I received the item in a timely manner and in perfect condition. I am very pleased. Thumbs up. Thank you very much.

Francoise Hardy's sixth Vogue album "Ma Jeunesse fout le camp", originally released in 1967, may well be her least interesting 1960's release. Not that it's a bad album; her well-known appealing melancholy is all over it. It can be hard though, to distinguish several tracks from each other, and quite a few tracks suffer from too much orchestration; all in all making it her most main-stream pop-album.

Hardy only wrote about half of the songs, and in most cases her own songs stand out. Though the title track is quite nice, the first track that really woke me up was "Qui Peut Dire" which is the first track that allows electric guitar and drums to come forward; written by Hardy and the only track produced by her husband Jacques Dutronc. Another stand-out is her own "Mais il y a des soirs", in spite of quite heavy strings. "Voila" is another memorable track; a melody and an arrangement that would have fitted the early Dusty Springfield perfectly.

A good album; no more.

Some people have claimed that listening to Françoise Hardy inspired them to learn French. That's very understandable given the rich, tragic and painfully romantic mood of albums like "Ma Jeunesse Fout L'Camp (often translated as "My Youth Slips Away"). Not to mention the poetic lyrics that paint thick pictures of lost love, searching for violets in the woods and the inconsolable and interminable passage of time. No one would call this album a pick-me-up. Even the music itself emanates a feeling of melancholy and longing. Sparse piano and vocals float over layers of thick strings throughout. The album's overall mood was given adequate visual representation on a 1967 episode of "Dim Dam Dom." There a sea of bright orange inflatable mattresses swing in an ineffable breeze, rocking to and fro like a gentle fall day painted by an insane interior designer. Hardy lies sprawled across one of these gelatinous looking beds, mouthing the title song listlessly into the camera. This creates a strange and macabre beauty that compliments lines such as "the rain falling today/erases our footsteps/though the children still have/their heads full of songs/but I don't know any of them." Unlike some of Hardy's earlier albums, often subsumed under the "yé-yé" category, this one delves deeper into growing up and facing the strange absurdity of the world. Welcome to French pop. So those who do learn French will definitely appreciate this album on a deeper level. They will find that it's actually sadder than it sounds. Nonetheless, the music stands on its own, as do Hardy's expressive vocals, which defy translation.

The demeanor doesn't waver much throughout the album's some thirty minutes, with one exception. "Qui Peut Dire" ("Who can say") actually rocks, at least relative to its surrounding tracks. Electric guitar and heavy drums even peek through. But the lyrical themes don't follow the tempo, as the words reveal: "If it is known that the day returns after the night/Who can say if this day will be blue or gray?" and "Because any beginning must have an end/What is changing then dies and is nothing more" (very rough translations). One of Hardy's best tracks ever appears towards the album's end, "Voilà." A roller coaster of crescendos and painful cries of love make the song an almost exhausting listen. Though verging on melodrama, it manages not to stray into that minefield thanks to Hardy's appropriately restrained vocals. Others could easily demolish it with larynx strained outpourings sounding closer to constipation or fake climax (doubtless some already have). Hardy, who also penned this tune, tows the line brilliantly. Though the songs mentioned so far reach out and demand your cochlea's immediate attention, all of the album's songs maintain a consistent quality. No duds here.

Of course the album remains a product of its generation, namely 1960s France. As such, some of it may sound pretentious or overbearing to modern, particularly English-speaking, ears. Some may disparage it with the evil, and thankfully mostly extinct, label "Easy Listening." Well, this music won't please everyone, but it's also not shallow. It likely strives towards "art." Many would argue it succeeds, as the album's prevalent attitude demands a response. Even the musical structure suggests intimacy and introspection. Hardy's lips-to-the-microphone treatment emphasizes this (with heavy reverb often suggesting distance). Many will find themselves automatically reflecting on somber themes as the album plays, its beauty penetrating areas where pop music rarely goes.

I loved the richness of lyrics written by Francois and the simplicity of her music.