Entire Spotify Playlist:
Highlights:
Comme un Enfant (Juveniles Remix) – Yelle
After (iamamiwhoami remix) – Moby
Baby I’m Yours (Siriusmo Remix) – Breakbot
Breeze -xxyyxx
Je T’aime Moi non plus – Serge Gainsbourg
Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son (Arcade Fire cover) – France Gall
Marquises – Nicolas Jaar
Get Lucky (Darkside Remix) – Daft Punk
Hiathaikm -Valentin Stip
Sous le ciel de Paris – Edith Piaf
(Some of these songs aren’t on Spotify, so the playlist isn’t exactly complete.)
From Ed Banger Records to that good old accordion, this playlist (from last night’s installment of Strays and Takeaways, Tuesdays at midnight, so technically Wednesday but whatever) goes from old to new french artists (and some artists that have nothing to do with France, but hey, we don’t discriminate).
Start with one of the funnest french electropop bands Yelle; some poster children of the french Ed Banger Records (think Breakbot, Mr Oizo, Uffie, Justice, SebatiAn); a personal high school fav Wax Tailor who mixes classic movie segments with hip hop beats; M83’s french front man Anthony Gonzalez; french-speaker Nicolas Jaar; and of course, French music favorites Phoenix and Daft Punk.
The playlist also features Serge Gainsbourg, probably France’s most important, poetic, controversial and eclectic musicians of the 60s, 70s and 80s. An innovator of the yé-yé style along with France Gall (also featured), the genre was coined by the phrase “yeah! yeah!” (almost too french right?). He continued to make music in jazz, mambo, and had a legendary reggae phase at the end of his life. Here, he sings a very sexy duo with British actress Jane Birkin. They had a child together, french actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, who’s featured later in the playlist. See her in Melancholia and another Lars Von Trier film coming out soon called Nymphomaniac.
If you haven’t yet seen Le Fameux Destin D’Amélie Poulain (Amélie from Montmartre), you should absolutely watch it right away. Audrey Tautou is a quirky gem and the entire soundtrack by Yann Tiersen is amazingly heart warming.
Finally, Edith Piaf. Our national diva, our favorite Mome, the absolute image of love and sorrow whose music brings you back to Paris in the 1930s and 40s, where you imagine yourself walking down a small street whose cobblestones are just barely humid from the afternoon rain, and that’s tainted blue from the night light. (Also a great hangover cure, far less poetic, much more practical).
<3 Profitez bien, vous le méritez <3