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November 30, 2009 at 12:24 pm |
A couple of weeks ago I bought Diam’s latest album
S.O.S., released on November 13th this year.
I have only one other Diam’s album, the 2006 Dans ma bulle and essentially S.O.S. is pretty much more of the same, that’s to say, very solid hip hop with the occasional track that stands out.
In fairness, I think there are a few more stand out songs on this album than on Dans ma Bulle and I think Coeur De Bombe is one of those tracks.
Interestingly it is the only track that I put in my “favourite french songs” playlist while I was listening to the album for the first time although I certainly don’t think it is the strongest track on the album.
In any case, it’s the song I am going to translate in this post!
There is a usage of the verb
tomber “to fall” which means “to bump into”, as in
Je suis tombé sur mon ami. I’ve left the translation of
tombé sur une bombe in the chorus as “fell on a bomb” as I think the image is preferable to any other translation.
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November 23, 2009 at 11:20 pm |
I recently heard a song by Isabelle Boulay on a French radio station. I was suprised how grabbed I was by her voice given that her music is not generally of the genre that immediately catches my attention.
As I do in these circumstances, I went in search of the samples that accompany MP3 downloads these days and found the album Nos Lendemains (Our tomorrows) in the UK iTunes store.
I was not suprised to find that her previous album De retour à la source was nominated for the Canadian Juno Award for francophone album of the year in 2008 which was eventually won by Daniel Bélanger who was one of the earliest singers I translated on this site.
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November 17, 2009 at 4:41 pm |
The album in the widget to the left is not the album discussed in this post. All will become clear.
Yesterday, BB Brunes released their second album Nico Teen Love. Their first single from this album was released several months ago and was available to listen to free online. You can see videos of Dynamite (translated here) and others in the video section of their site. Extracts from three other songs from Nico Teen Love have been available for some time here.
It had been possible to pre-order the album in physical form and, unfortunately, for a physical price but, not wanting another CD in my life I decided to wait until the release date and download from either iTunes or Amazon depending on which was the cheapest (not that I’ve ever found an album that was cheaper on iTunes).
I knew this was at best a foolish gamble and, as I had feared, the album is not available in either store, nor is it available to purchase from the band’s official site. So I now have a physical copy of the album making its way to me from France.
If you want to hear extracts from all the songs on the album you can hear them on the French Amazon store although you will not be able to buy the album outside of France. Alternatively, you can fire up iTunes, navigate to the store and then in the bottom right of your iTunes application select the round flag icon and then use the following list of countries to move to the French store. You can then search for the album and listen to the extracts, but again, unless you have a French iTunes account you won’t be able to get your ears on the full album. The iTunes price of 14.99 euros is horrific and is made worse when you see that it is priced at a much more sensible 9.99 EUR on Amazon.
Amazon have however got their hands on some of my money today after I bought Diam’s new release S.O.S. Voilà pourqoui the album in the widget is not the subject of this post. Unusually this was the same price (GBP 7.99) as in iTunes but I prefer to buy from Amazon so that I get the DRM-free MP3s and Amazon’s downloader integrates the album into your iTunes library for you without any hassle.
So, there will be two reviews coming shortly.
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November 10, 2009 at 2:21 pm |
Babylon Circus, Bristol UK, Halloween 2009
I took the picture to the left at a Babylon Circus gig this Halloween just gone.
I’d seen them in London a few days previously and absolutely had to see them again before they left the UK to continue their tour in France where they were, incidentally, supported by another great French band, Les Gars Dans L’Coin.
It’s been nearly twenty years since I saw a performance so strong that I simply had to see it again as soon as I could.
Back then I was watching two or three gigs a week and back then I myself was touring the pubs and clubs of Southampton (UK) in a four piece cover band.
Having played guitar since I was old enough to say “can I play on your guitar dad?”, I found myself in the backseat position of drummer. There are two reasons for this. Firstly because I was offered the role by a band that already had their claws in the circuit and secondly, because if I had been allowed anywhere near the front of the stage I would have bored the audience to tears. Noone could ever have accused me back in the day of being a “people person.”
That’s not to say of course that the guy or girl behind the drumkit can’t be an entertainer – far from it, indeed in a live performance a talented drummer can take on the task of conducting the audience as well as the band. But that drummer wasn’t me.
Chris (me), Jason, Keith and Andy before a gig circa 1990
You can probably tell this from this photograph from when I was sixteen. I’m the miserable one on the left. That is the look of a guy who never got over not being the guitarist. Notice how even the lights around me are unimpressed.
So with this in mind I’ve been compiling the top ten things that make for a great live performance and I’ll be sharing them with you over the next couple of articles.
However before I do this, what I
really want is some comments from you guys, so don’t be shy –
leave a comment and let me know about some of the best bands you’ve ever seen and why they left such an impression.
When we were young we went dancing to a band at the Rink
They were so far out of tune and time and they didn’t even blink
They were the best in the world as far as we were concerned
I heard them two years on, it was amazing what they’d learned
Twice as cool, twice as fast, twice as loud, twice as long
They were at least twice as good and about half as much fun
Fool’s Gold – The Rainmakers, 2006
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November 8, 2009 at 10:27 pm |
I can’t tell you how much
this guy reminds me of myself about twenty years ago. He’s even using the same Gibson guitar I was grinding at the time and would’ve used to record almost exactly that video had YouTube been around in 1989. Thankfully it was not.
The song he is attacking is the song I’m going to translate today.
Marie Mai first gained fame as one of the finalists of Star Académie, a Québécois version of those shows such as X-Factor, Pop Idol, etc… that we have all come to know and [hate/love/ignore]. A talented singer who would be unlikely to make the cut on an English version as we seem to prefer to pick people that we can use for headline-fodder rather than finding real singers.
Marie-Mai’s latest album,
Version 3.0 (a gag first pulled by Garbage in 1998 with their second album
Version 2.0) was released at the end of September. I downloaded it from Amazon today and listened to it for the first time.
Her style is very much in the same arena as that of Avril Lavigne and although I’m not sure if I should admit it, I have to say that I do kind of enjoy this sort of rocky pop when it’s done well. Albeit in small doses.
The 2007 album Dangereuse Attraction opened with a very strong track called Mentir. As you may already know I keep a play list of songs to help me make it through my gym sessions and Mentir is a song that has been in that list for a while.
Version 3.0 does not start as well as Dangereuse Attraction, although the first two tracks are still pretty good. However track three C’est Moi descends into a realm of pop music with which I’m not really very comfortable – Cher-style voice screwery and other electro-effects – nothing horrific but enough to turn me off. Track four Garde Tes Larmes “Keep your tears” starts off in much the same vein although quickly improves with a chorus that is amongst the best on the album.
Next up is what I consider to be the strongest song on the album Secrets. It then all cruises along until Plaisirs Amers where we once again have to listen to voice-fiddling but this is balanced out with hints of some heavier guitar riffs which come excitingly close to leaning towards the metal that I often go into dark corners to listen to.
Rebâtir Notre Histoire is probably the weakest song. It starts pretty badly then tries to improve but then gives up.
The album finishes with the English language song Do You – half rock, half dance – decent enough but essentially just more of the same. This is, for me, the biggest problem with the album. Although perfectly solid with a very fine singer and some decent tracks, everything’s a little samey whereas I felt that Dangereuse Attraction had far more variety and interest.
