French — All Formats  

One of the greatest Brigitte Bardot albums you could ever buy – some of the grooviest, sexiest work the famous French actress ever cut! The album's overflowing with excellent original material written by Bardot by Serge Gainsbourg and Francis Lai – two of our favorite French composers of the 60s, and both a very good choice to work with Brigitte! Bardot sings in a sexy, whispery style that's a bit like Jane Birkin, but somewhat different too – and the arrangements are by Michel Colombier, Paul Pio, and Christian Gaubert – three talents who definitely keep things groovy. There's a few instrumentals mixed in with the vocal tracks – but that's totally fine with us, because they're all pretty great – and there's plenty of moments with a nice groove and a bit of funk. Titles include "Harley Davidson", "Ay Que Viva La Sangria", "Gang Gang", "David B", "Mister Sun", "Paris", "On Demenage", and "Contact" – plus the excellent "Marseillaise Generique" instrumental – used to great effect in Austin Powers!

Beautiful work from Benjamin Biolay – easily one of our favorite French artists of the 21st Century – even though we've been following his work since the previous one! Benjamin's got a sound that's just perfect if you, like us, dig an older generation of French work by artists like Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Dutronc, Michel Polnareff, and others from that magical late 60s moment when French pop really found its own sound. Biolay's got a way of sliding in the sinister next to the groovy – often with vocals that are spoken as much as sung – and produced to perfection by his own strong ear for unusual combinations of sounds. Benjamin helped launch the career of many other great French acts in the past decade or two – but we still love his own work the best – and an album like this definitely lives up to that faith. Titles include "Venganza", "Marlene Deconne", "Personne Dans Mon Lit", "Confettis", "La Fin De La Fin", "L'Insigne Honneur", and "Tresor Tresor".

Beautiful work from Benjamin Biolay – easily one of our favorite French artists of the 21st Century – even though we've been following his work since the previous one! Benjamin's got a sound that's just perfect if you, like us, dig an older generation of French work by artists like Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Dutronc, Michel Polnareff, and others from that magical late 60s moment when French pop really found its own sound. Biolay's got a way of sliding in the sinister next to the groovy – often with vocals that are spoken as much as sung – and produced to perfection by his own strong ear for unusual combinations of sounds. Benjamin helped launch the career of many other great French acts in the past decade or two – but we still love his own work the best – and an album like this definitely lives up to that faith. Titles include "Venganza", "Marlene Deconne", "Personne Dans Mon Lit", "Confettis", "La Fin De La Fin", "L'Insigne Honneur", and "Tresor Tresor".

A landmark collaboration between Serge Gainsbourg and actress Jane Birkin – his paramour at the time, and a much younger woman! The pair come together beautifully here in a set of sensuous duets – tunes that have an open, honest approach to the relations between the sexes – yet never in any sort of cliched late 60s hippie-esque ways. This album is perhaps the archetypal Gainsbourg erotic effort – and it's filled with wonderful duets set to breathy, bouncy orchestrations – tunes that forged a whole new "adult" level in pop music – not just in France, but around the globe! The arrangements are amazing, and feature some of the weirdest instrumentation ever heard on a pop record – especially one that was as successful as this. Backings are by Athur Greenslade – and titles include the classic "69 Annee Erotique" and "Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus", plus "Jane B", "Elisa", "Orang Outan", "Les Sucettes", and "Manon".