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March 2009

Translation of Ça ma vexe by Mademoiselle K

March 30, 2009

The second female vocalist right on the heels of the first This is the title song from the album Ça ma vexe. If anyone has any idea what the singer means by les soirées watchi watcha then please let me know.

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Translation of Quelqu’un m’a dit by Carla Bruni

March 30, 2009

The pace is coming down several notches now. It’s time to put up a song with a female vocalist, and surely Carla Bruni, being married to the French President himself, is a fair candidate to be the first lady on my blog.

Guitar chords provided at end of post.

Another straightfoward translation without too much complexity.

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Translation of Jusqu’au Bout by Frédéric Lerner

March 30, 2009

I can get an extra few minutes out of my workout on the treadmill if I have this song at the end of my playlist. The YouTube clip below is a live performance which loses some of the energy of the recorded version but gives a slightly different look at the song.

Jusqu’au bout “until the end” is from the album Ça passe ou ça casse “it works or it fails” (meaning I’m going do this thing whatever the result… let’s hope for the best).

Seeings as I’ve just sat here and figured out the chords to this one, I’ve put them at the end of the post if you fancy strumming it.

Not a great deal of complexity here in the translation…

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Translation of L’homme pressé by Noir Désir

March 29, 2009

This is quite a heavy song from the album En Route Pour La Joie – this one’ll wake you up in the morning!

Je suis un homme pressé – “I’m a busy man” or “I’m a man in a hurry”. A long song in terms of the number of words! Plenty of useful phrases.

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Translation of J’aurais bien voulu by Babylon Circus

March 28, 2009

This is the first French song for which I learned the lyrics by heart – J’aurais bien voulu – “I would have really liked”, from the album Dances of Resistance. There are a lot of English language songs on that album but two of the best are in French – this one, and De la Musique et de la Bruit. I can’t find this album on iTunes, unfortunately.

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Translation of Travers by La Ruda

March 26, 2009

Travers is the last song on one of my favourite French albums – 24 Images / Second by La Ruda. This album is the first album by the band since they changed their name from the original La Ruda Salska and the first album on which the group changed to a much more rocky style than their previous albums which were more influenced by ska and salsa music.

Travers translates as fault or failing here as in “Malgré mes travers” – “Depsite my faults”.

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Translation of Tout reste à faire by KYO

March 25, 2009

I had imagined my first song here being something a bit more energetic than this. I had thought I would kick off with the sort of song that would help get the blood pumping on the treadmill, and indeed there is no shortage of KYO songs that fall into that category.

This song, Tout reste à faire is the final song on the album Le Chemin. Far from being a blood-pumping pacey rock number, this is one of those haunting, sprawling songs that normally just irritate me and come across as self-indulgent nonsense. However, this one really grabbed me. I’m still not exactly sure why as normally I would throw a song like this directly in the dreary bin.

Listen to this on a device that is capable of delivering a nice rich bass and crisp treble as the production is part of the reason the song sounds so good. One of the dissappointing things about my iPod is that it cannot produce the same quality of sound as my old iRiver MP3 player. The best I can do to get close is to choose the “R&B” EQ setting, but it’s still not quite right.

Lyrically, nothing much complicated here at all in terms of translation except perhaps the title itself which means something along the lines of “everything is still ahead” or “everything to play for”. I have gone with the literal translation “Everything left to do”.

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