A great album I've just discovered is a french one by Philippe Katerine
Philippe made a minimalistic album with very simple but hilarious songs very human after all.
24 songs, the longest is 3'13 long. The lyrics are sometimes one or two words that he keeps repeating, there are also "normal" songs with verses and choruses.
This guy is totally crazy (some sort of new Brigitte fontaine), the songs are refreshing, funny and kinda witty, dealing with a lot of different subjects (freedom; censorship, age, family, technology) with a few words and a sparse musical accompaniment (gtr bass drums)
A great way to hear it is his last show in Paris which is online here on the arte web site
He just played the album from A to Z (in the right order)in the first "set" (before the curtain calls)
Well, it's better if you speak French but the lyrics are so simple that you might understand some of it.
This record split the critics in two : lovers or haters. I'm among the lovers. There might be haters among the French diaspora on AM.
On the cover he's with his real parents, and made them sing a song with him (lyrics "i want to make a movie with a naked woman and disabled people")
here's a vidoe of one of his songs (not the best, but not too bad (lyrics liberty my ass equakity my ass franternity my ass)
you probably all know that liberté égalité fraternité is the French motto
A great album I've just discovered is a french one by Philippe Katerine
Philippe made a minimalistic album with very simple but hilarious songs very human after all.
This guy is totally crazy (some sort of new Brigitte fontaine) and i love his albums (my kids too)
A great way to hear it is his last show in Paris which is online here on the arte web site
He just played the album from A to Z (in the right order)
Well, it's better if you speak French but the lyrics are so simple that you might understand some of it.
This record split the critics in two : lovers or haters. I'm among the lovers. There might be haters among the French diaspora on AM.
On the cover he's with his real parents, and made them sing a song with him (lyrics "i want to make a movie with a naked woman and disabled people")
I'm on the haters side ; a friend of mine dragged me to the concert in the Casino de Paris (beautiful place by the way) and I have never been as bored in a concert as in the first hour of the show, when he played his album A to Z. This album is very bad musically and quite awful in term of lyrics (This night I had a dream I sucked Johnny, reciting the alphabet and "I love your ass, ow" is not really my vision of neither fun nor clever lyricist).
His previous album, Robots après tout, was way better.
I was sure there was gonna be haters, especially on AM.
I don't think this is very AM-like. NOt intelllectual enough, not "beautiful" enough, not polished, not complex enough, no mysterious lyrics, no second degree. Too childish.
Clever you said ? Sometimes very intelligent things can be said in a dumb way.
I really laughed out loud in the subway when I first heard the songs.
The guy's a provocator, like the surrealistic were in the 20s and 30s, like Rabelais, like Jarry, like Duchamp, like Vian, like Coluche. Not that he's as good as them, but he's part of that tradition of student humor.
And i think the music is good.
