Yesterday I pointed you in the direction of the new release from Vulgaires Machins, an album of eleven acoustic songs, available for the donation of your choice from their website.

I’ve listened to the album half a dozen times since downloading it and I love it – I don’t need to review it for you – download a copy and check it out for yourself.

Here is a translation of “A”, originally released on the 2006 album “Aimer Le Mal” which you can sample using the Amazon widget on the right.

I don’t know what “cady” means – the best I can discover is that it is a make of motorbike. If you know, please share.

I had been looking forward to Ycare’s second album, Lumière Noire for several months. His first album, Au Bord Du Monde is a great record and I had expected more of the same from his follow up, released on June 6th.

On first listen, I was disappointed. Au Bord Du Monde was loaded with clean guitars and had a very acoustic feel. The latest release has veered more towards being a pop album, with much more keyboard effects and with a much more poppy, dancey feel.

However, the whole album has grown on me after several listens and while I don’t think it will ever overtake his first offering as one of my favourite albums, it will certainly get many plays.

Here is a translation of the second track, Lap Dance, a single that was released some time before the album itself.

Incry’s first album, Face au Mur, is one of the heavier, and better, rock albums to be released recently in the French language. Incry produce what you might call a heavy, melodic rock which hits me right where I live, although I realise this may be slightly heavier than most people stumbling across this page may be looking for.

There’s no real need to to make comparisons to other bands, but if I had to I would say the band they put me most in mind of is Staind. The first track is very Faith No More-ish in many ways but just listen to the samples in the widget to the right of this page to get a feel for the album.

Here is a translation of the third track, L’effaceur – a word which translates as “Eraser”, just as the Arnie film of the same name was translated to L’effaceur in French.

To celebrate the fantastic new album from Mademoiselle K, here is another translation from it.

Having listened to this album fairly solidly for the last few days, I think it’s my favourite release since Babylon Circus’s La Belle Étoile.

The song translated here is the title track Jouer Dehors, the vampiric video for which can be viewed here.

I’m a lot happier with this translation than the last one, because these lyrics make a lot more sense.

A week late, I’d forgotten about the release of Mademoiselle K’s latest album, Jouer Dehors (Playing Outside), on January 14th.

I picked it up today from the Amazon MP3 store, and I can tell you that it’s a real good’un. A bit less rocky and a bit less punky than the previous two albums, a bit cleaner, a bit more melodic, and altogether very enjoyable from the very first listen.

Some standout tracks for me, are “La Corde” – the build up in the chorus is so satisfying (as it is with the final track “À L’infini”), “Solidaires”, and the title track, the video for which you can watch the video for the title track at this link.

While I absolutely loved the first few tracks on Ça Me Vexe (some of the best French rock I’ve heard), I was never totally grabbed by Jamais La Paix, and thought the next album might be quite empty. I was wrong. The album sounds crisp, well produced and stays solid until the very end. Highly recommended.

So, en deux temps, trois mouvements, I thought I would put up a translation of the opening track, Aisément.

I’ll be honest (I’m a very honest man), I’m not overly pleased with this translation, I not actually sure what she’s going on about.

Feel free to let me know where I’ve screwed up.

Ben L'Oncle Soul, December 2010
Le Pigalle Club, Piccadilly

On Friday I had no idea that Ben L’Oncle Soul was due to appear alongside Puggy in London last night. I only found out thanks to a competition on French Radio London.

I was beyond excited to be going to see this guy live.

I’ve been a huge fan since seeing him back in May, on TV5 Monde when I was massively impressed by his style, music and performance.

Not only was he every bit as good as I thought he would be, putting on a superb show with his band and his support vocalists/dancers, The Soul Wash Boys, I also discovered a truly great band in Puggy and a fantastic music venue, Le Pigalle Club, in the heart of Piccadilly.

We were treated to English versions of many of the French tracks from his self-titled first album released earlier this year, including this one, Petite Soeur, although I should mention that this is not the version sung last night – as mentioned many times before, the translations here are not designed to be sung, they’re there to help understand the original.

BB Brunes premier EP en anglais was released on November 15th and if you listen to the extracts on their album preview page – after listening to the really rather good sounding acoustic version of Battle Lost and Won – you will notice that track four So far so long is in fact Lalalove you from their current album Nico Teen Love, their deuxième album en français.

Only the music is shared however, the English lyrics have been rewritten and have no link to the original track.

I’ve not heard this new album yet because as far as I can tell there is no where to buy it on MP3 online and I’m long past wishing to build up a physical CD collection, let alone a vinyl collection, which is another format option availble in the BB Brunes store.

Here is the translation of the track Lalalove You from Nico Teen Love.

Le Vilain Volatile are a fantastic French rock/ska band whose first and only album is, as far as I’m aware, available for MP3 purchase only at Xtrib.com.

How such a great band is not more widely known, I can only guess.

This song, Banal Killer is my favourite track on the album. An upbeat ska/rock track on the album but you can listen to a far gentler, more sinister, and no less excellent acoustic version on the band’s Wat.TV channel, along with three more similarly de-rocked tracks from the album.

The song starts with a verse of parental clichés before becoming a great deal more disturbing.

I stumbled across the acoustic recording while I was preparing a translation for this post and noticed the word “Houellebecq” added to the title. I don’t know what this means but it wouldn’t be out of place it it were a reference to the award-winning and controversial author Michel Houellebecq whose novels are often shocking and laced with anti-societal themes.

I’m surprised I didn’t take advantage of the Pope’s visit to my home town last month to post a translation of this song from my favourite French album.

Le Fils Caché Du Pape, written for the group by Mickaël Furnon (Mickey 3D) is one of the slower, creeping songs on La Belle Étoile, perhaps not with the instant rampant appeal of a Nina, a Perdu or a Sista but still a winner.

One of only three tracks on the album that contains no English lyrics at all (if you don’t include the instrumental Valsamourette). The others are L’envol and La Cigarette.

I’d like to translate La Belle Étoile in its entirety so over the next few weeks I’ll try to post one translation per week from the album.

This is a translation of a rap track from Ken Arkana’s first album Entre Ciment Et Belle Etoile. Given the current tense situation in France over pension reforms, the reference in Keny Arkana’s first single La Rage to the civil unrest in France in 2005 has some pertinence.

The quality of rap & hip-hop coming out of France over the last decade or so has been strong, but if you’re not a fan of this sort of thing then this is probably not the track to win you over. Of course, if you’re listening to French music to help train your ears to the language, then this will give your brain a real workout!

The 19-track album can be picked up for just £3.99 on Amazon or £5.99 on iTunes – you can listen to clips directly from the Amazon widget on this page.