Femme de Paris

Jacqueline Taieb、Cleoをはじめ、'60年代女性フレンチ・ポップ名曲を集めたコンピレーション・アルバム!ピンク・カラー・ヴァイナル。

The "ye-ye" style is inherently frivolous, but if you're in the mood for some good, clean, kitschy fun with a whiff of naughtiness, this is a pretty respectable 19-song collection of French-sung, women-sung pop/rock from the mid-to-late '60s. True, if you've already started to collect the mini-genre, there's a good amount of repetition between this CD and some other compilations you might already have in your collection, like those in the Ultra Chicks and Swinging Mademoiselle series. It's at least the third time around, in fact, for a few of these, like Elizabeth's "Je Suis Sublime," Cosette's "Idealisation," and Jacqueline Taieb's "7 Heures du Matin" (which slips in a sly parody of the chorus of "My Generation"). It's also true that this suffers from too many inferior Francophone covers of big American and British hits, like "Nitty Gritty," "Sloop John B" (titled here, oddly, "Fille ou Garcon," i.e. "Girl or Boy"), "Baby Love," and "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'." On the other hand, a couple of the covers are really cool, those being Marie Laforet's "Marie Douceur, Marie Colere" (the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black," sung with a Marianne Faithfull-like quaver) and Patricia's dramatic reading of "Nights in White Satin" (retitled "Mes Reves de Satin"). Though Violaine's "Jai des Problemes Decidement" is a pretty good pop-punker with its pounding beat and bleating harmonica, other songs often incline toward a more typically French/continental pop feel, albeit with a go-go sheen. Tiny Yong sounds like a French Sandie Shaw on "Tu Es le Roi des Menteurs"; Michele Arnaud a little like a French female version of the Righteous Brothers on "Les Papillons Noirs"; and Taieb's "Le Printemps a Paris" ("Spring in Paris") is lush orchestrated pop-rock with the kind of buoyancy that makes you want to go right out and take a stroll around Paris' Jardin du Luxembourg. ~ Richie Unterberger