Chansons dEnnui Tip-Top

Following a pair of collaborative albums -- one a tribute to Hollywoods Chateau Marmont with Chilly Gonzales, the other with his improvisational art rock group, Jarv Is -- Jarvis Cocker takes another unpredictable stylistic turn with his first solo album in 12 years, Chansons dEnnui Tip-Top. A tie-in to the soundtrack for the 2021 Wes Anderson film The French Dispatch, it offers 12 cinematic covers of classic French pop songs, some with ties themselves to other films. A collaboration with Anderson, the record closes on the larger-than-life Aline, Cockers version of the hit 60s ballad by Christophe that he recorded for The French Dispatch soundtrack and which inspired a full album of like-minded covers. Steeped in echo, thundering drums, harpsichord, and a weave of strings and soaring backing vocals, its guided by Cockers spoke-sung vocals as they rise from sultry whispers to tortured pleas. Generally using the dramatic, stylized arrangements of the originals as templates throughout, he opens the album with Dans Ma Chambre and, loyal to the Dalida original, a quote of the famous opening to Bachs Toccata and Fugue in D minor, which recurs during the song. A highlight for its quirky theatricality, the space-age Contact, a Serge Gainsbourg tune made famous by Brigitte Bardot, is a fairly spot-on cover by Cocker, who has Bardot-like vocal support on the choruses. Speaking of guests, Stereolabs Laetitia Sadier is featured prominently on another Dalida entry, Paroles Paroles, the singers seductive 1973 duet with actor Alain Delon. The Tip-Top version employs a similar palette but emphasizes piano, bass, hand drums, and eventually strings over the originals bossa-style guitar, though all this and more comes into play on both editions. Elsewhere here, French cinema is represented on tracks such as Requiem pour un Con, a Gainsbourg original from the 1968 film Le Pacha, the psychedelic Mao Mao from 1967s La Chinoise, and the finger-snapping funk entry Elle et Moi, an earlier track included in 2003s Any Way the Wind Blows (featuring a dramatic reading in the style of the 80s new beat original by Max Berlin). Intriguing from beginning to end, Cockers lush, emphatic takes should delight fans of vintage French and Baroque pop. ~ Marcy Donelson