Carla Bruni: Little French Songs All Music by Thom Jurek

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Carla Bruni: Little French Songs All Music By Thom Jurek Little French Songs Carla Bruni’s first album since 2008's Comme Si de Rien N’Etait, and her first outing as France's former first lady. Reception in the English-speaking press on the European side of the Atlantic has been middling at best, while in France the album has been greeted with more enthusiasm. The truth may lie somewhere in between for most, but for those with at least a working knowledge of the French chanson tradition, both in its formal sense and through its various revolutionary phases, they will find that most of this fits squarely inside it (though that knowledge is not necessary to enjoy the album). One can hear Bruni’s love of artists from Georges Brassens and Charles Trénet to Pierre Barouh and Serge Gainsbourg in these simple yet elegant tunes. She wrote most of the album herself. Its economic production is driven by a nylon-string guitar in the forefront, adorned by some sparse brass here, a minimal harmonium or Wurlitzer there, a drum or percussion elsewhere. On "Mon Raymond," she celebrates her husband Nicolas Sarkozy while utterly -- and comedically -- humanizing him. By contrast, she wryly skewers his successor French President François Hollande ("Le Pingouin") as boring and without personality -- indulging in sass befitting Brigitte Fontaine. Her breezy yet moving adaptation of Trénet’s nugget "Dolce Francia" contains a spoken word introduction with Taofik Farah's guitar and Ballake Sissoko's kora atop a breezy violincello and shakers. She makes this classic her own. "Prière," a co-write between Bruni and Julien Clerc, channels Brassens' inspiration in her own idiosyncratic way. One can hear Barouh and Gainsbourg in the Caribbean-cum-samba rhythmic twist in "Chez Keith et Anita." It's a clever song about finding peace and quiet at the home of Keith Richards and former girlfriend Anita Pallenberg circa 1970 -- Marianne Faithful is apparently also there, smelling of vanilla. Sissoko also appears on the lithe, beautiful "Liberté" near the set's end. This is not a political song -- at least not in the usual sense. Here, as chanson meets the bohemian cafe, freedom is tender, bittersweet, and regarded through the gaze of memory. Little French Songs is exactly what it says it is. Bruni's songwriting is deceptive in its limpid simplicity, full of reverie, wit, and the directness of her breathy voice, which is well traveled but contains delight at its heart. http://www.allmusic.com/album/little-french-songs-mw0002492092 .

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Carla Bruni Announces New Album 434.61 Kb
Carla Bruni Announces New Album ‘French Touch’ To Be Released on October 6th via Decca Records First Single, Cover of Depeche Mode’s ‘Enjoy The Silence’ Available Now Photo credit: Matthieu Zazzo Internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Carla Bruni announces the release of her 5th studio album, an English-language collection of cover songs produced by legendary producer, composer and musician David Foster entitled ‘French Touch’, released on October 6th via Decca Records. Click Here for the stunning video (directed by Fabienne Berthaud) for first single ‘Enjoy The Silence’, a stripped down and intimate rendition of the Depeche Mode classic, which premiered on Billboard.com accompanied by an interview with Carla. The song is available now on all digital and streaming services carlabruni.lnk.to/EnjoyTheSilence Since her youth, Carla has assembled a trove of all-time sentimental favourites—pop songs forever associated with a person or place or moment in time, the sort of records that she says, borrowing the French term for love at first sight, “have been a coup de foudre.” The album gives credence to its title, richly melodic, warm yet minimal, and often slyly playful – all the covers in this collection have been given that ‘French Touch’, and still have all the universal appeal of their originals, albeit with a sultry flavour all their own. 7 Broadbent Close, Highgate Village, London, N6 5JW t 020 3213 0135 f 020 8348 7776 e [email protected] www.republicmedia.net @republic_media Take the lead single, ‘Enjoy the Silence’. Depeche Mode’s dark yet soaring 1990 pop classic is the sort of anthem most musicians wouldn’t dare mess with—“a song that doesn’t need a cover,” as Carla puts it—yet the ‘French Touch’ take is something else altogether.
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