Customer Reviews

Nouvelle Vague

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Nouvelle Vague (the album) is a French project to mine 80s Punk and New Wave classics, strip these songs to their bare, and suprisingly beautiful, melodies and have a French female voice perform the vocals originaly sung by a male singer. New Wave and Bossa Nova meet in Nouvelle Vague... the words mean the same thing in their respective languages, and now they are merged in the musical world. These covers are not for everybody, but the songs grow on you with repeated listening. A great chill out choice for those who grew up with the melodies. Endless queries of Who's that? will follow.

On paper, I thought this record would encapsulate everything I hate about some contemporary music, with its tendency towards glib pastiche, gutless irony and clueless appropriation. So it's with not a little surprise that I'm forced to report back..... this works! And I speak as someone who knows and loves the originals. Reinterpreting these classics from a feminine and non-british perspective brings out interesting new aspects of the tunes and foregrounds their melodic strength and lyrical sensitivity. Some skate onto the thin ice of novelty - in fact, I usually miss the first few (pretty lame) tunes out and play the disc from "Guns Of Brixton" onwards, but that doesn't mean the record overall is without merit. Some are really affecting - "Making Plans For Nigel" has a real pathos, "Marian" and "In a Manner of Speaking" are wonderful, and (my personal favourite) "Psyche" takes the anger and hysteria of the original and reworks it into a version that drips with controlled menace. Personally, I think the whole bossa tag puts a kitsch/ironic spin on expectations of this project that's unjustified. Ignore the carpings of purist punk dullards and the sniggerings of cloth-eared hipsters - give this baby a spin with an open mind and you'll be in for an interesting and enjoyable ride..

This is one album the merits of which you could defend or denounce with equal conviction. Depending on your current mood or tolerance level, this collection of songs can be read as bland, people-will-buy-anything cynical, even sacrilegious (for those who take their nostalgia seriously) or as an aural delight, gathering together what seem like some of the most gorgeous female pop vocals around. I for one like it for the light, poppy feel it has to it, which makes you want to stick it on first thing on a summer morning. The guest vocalists' voices are pretty interchangeable, and it was only after reading the sleeve notes that I realized the producers actually worked with different singers. So much for my musical ear, then. The idea behind the album was evidently to be cleverly subversive by taking morose pop songs ('angsty' is the word used in the liner notes, I think) and sugar-coating them. It didn't always work for me: by the time I got to the XTC cover "Making Plans for Nigel", I lost my patience a bit with the weary vocals and contrived drawls, and had to get out and listen to the biting, highly political original. One of my favourite songs on the CD is the feather-light "In a Manner of Speaking", of which I have never actually heard the original. I'd give the album marks for its vocal prettiness and some productional twists, but it exists too much in a vacuum to really go down as a classic of the bossa nova genre.

The concept of this album is interesting and quite original in its on way. Two French producers take 13 post punk classics from groups such as XTC, The Clash and The Cure, strip away the original music and replace it with Bossanova rhythms. Then get eight women who have never heard of the songs before to sing them. The result is a classy sounding album and, although this project has a whiff of novelty, it is pulled off perfectly. If you don't believe me listen to their version of Joy Division's `Love will Tear us apart' and you'll be converted.

Take classic post-punk songs, by bands like Joy Division, the Clash, the Cure, and the Dead Kennedys which. Now give them a new sound: bossa nova.

That's the particular gimmick of Nouvelle Vague, whose self-titled debut is an ironic little curiosity. And while it has pretty, tongue-in-cheek covers like a sultry "Love Will Tear Us Apart," it never really rises above the status of "ironic little curiosity."

It opens with the legendary Joy Division song, done to a trippy bossa nova sound, and backed by lifeguard whistles and waves crashing. Then it dips into a chipper cover of Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough," a rather plodding acoustic cover of the Clash's "Guns of Brixton," and a mildly engaging version of the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks."

There are sultrier numbers as well -- the Cure get a cover with sultry night noises and slow guitar in "A Forrest," and "Sisters of Mercy" is practically transcendental. But while I love the Dead Kennedys' "Too Drunk to F*ck," it doesn't translate well to an awkward bossa nova rhythm. It doesn't fit in, and is distractingly disjointed even when taken by itself.

Is "Nouvelle Vague" a pretty bossa nova covers album? Oh yes. Will it actually be listened to again? Hard to say. It's an interesting listen, but a novelty rather than an album in its own right.

Certainly Nouvelle Vague has excellent choice in retro rock music, since they chose several excellent groups to cover here, and often their best songs as well. Some are catchy, some are cutely sugary, some are ethereal ballads. They're pretty to listen to, but somehow the individual flavour of each song gets lost in the downtempo sound.

Whatever you think of the music, it can't be denied that Camille Dalmais has an exceptional voice. Except for that painful screech in "Too Drunk To F*ck," she veers between the breathiness of Hope Sandoval to the sultry croon of Beth Gibbons. With a hint of Bjork as well, to be honest.

In or out of Nouvelle Vague, Dalmais has enormous talent, while the rest of the album is merely "okay" or even "just good." Diverting, but not the sort of thing to listen to over and over.

Imagine a long summernight, when you're sitting outside having a relaxed cooldown after a long, hot day. This music is the perfect companion, just as the original songs were for a cold winternight in a northern town. Some songs are almost unrecognizable from their original recording, so even though you might have listened to these way to often in the 80s, they are still refreshing the way Nouvelle Vague has remastered them.

This album is one of the most ingenious things I have ever heard: covering songs like "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "I Melt With You," among other songs, with acoustic guitars, synths and jazzy drums, making the album more suitable for easy listening than rocking out. All the vocals are good, but some are weak, such as Camille's vocal on "Too Drunk to $%*#" (listening to the squealing on that song is very painful). Overall I recommend this album to people that usually like their music eclectic and their electronica downtempo.

Projects like these are usually and simoultaneously slaughtered and revelled by critics and the public alike. It's only natural. Some will find it offensive that such legends as Joy Division or the Dead Kennedys are getting so "harmlessly" covered while others will think that there's something to it. I tend to belong to the latter even if it took me several listens to get to that point.

What does the trick in my opinion, is firstly the great vocals incorporated in this album and only on a secondary basis the music (which only has a decorative function for the most part). It's the sensual and very provocative voice over the music though that steals the show, and it does so not only very convincingly but also with a brio and humor that will make you succumb to its charms in the end. Just listen to the cover of "Too drunk to f**k" by the Kennedys and you'll perfectly understand where I'm coming from.

It's all covers of course from beginning to end, some more inspired than others and that includes names such as Nirvana the D.Mode or the Pretenders. There's a consistency in the way the whole project is realised which makes it almost a concept album, and as i said above it's definately an LP that earns the characterisation of a "grower".

I usually belong to the basher crowd when it comes to projects like this but Nouvelle Vague have definetely got a great touch to offer here. I just hope this is not all there is top them like it was with Apocalyptica. Time will show, but as a debut this is indeed intriguing...

Doing a cover is very hard because of the consequences and critics will bash your music, but this album....its very good! My fave tracks..Love will tear us apart (magnificent!) and The Guns of Brixton. I've been listening to the cd for weeks now. If you like eclectic downtempo music, then this cd is a must have.

You're entitled to be skeptical about some French folks doing bossa versions of early 80s new wave songs. Their recent http://www.kcrw.com/show/mb set will turn you into a believer. Here's the mood and setting: It's an early '80s sultry evening on Ipanema beach....crickets chirp in the background, and a lonesome helicopter emerges, then disappears across the skyline.... and a girl sings and strums her guitar. So sit back in your lounge chair, sip your favorite cold and sensuous beverage, and enjoy.