Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM
Posted by AlMachine on Monday, January 25, 2010


This album came as some surprise when I was offered to review it as I wasn’t even aware she was a musician. On further examination of her musical career (her cinematic career speaks for itself, especially after the release of Antichrist, an utterly stunning film) she has a spectacularly credible track record. Her previous record being a collaboration with Air doing the music and both Neil Hannon and Jarvis Cocker assisting her with the lyrics. I very much want to hear that record!

After a very long gap this, her third album, is not lacking in accredited creative partners either and is in fact a joint effort between Gainsourg and multi instrumentalist Beck. This worried me a little as I am no Beck fan, but thankfully the record is devoid of his ego and quirkiness. He respects the fact that this is not his record and leaves Gainsbourg’s heavily French influenced vocal melodies, her lyrics occasionally joining them in the language, to do the brunt of the work, adding backings of incredibly innovative and unusual instrumentation. Everything from soupy string sections to heavy, rhythmic African drums make an appearance here but still at no point drown out her raspy, fragile voice. A voice which knows its limits and uses them to its advantage to accentuate her wonderfully inventive and playful lyrics.

I sincerely can’t think of a bad thing to say about this record.

Michael Cowell

10/10


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