Nouvelle Vague - Version française '2010

Tracks list

ln 76-77, the incredible explosion of English-speaking bands focused the
energies of a whole generation of Western youth - rebels ready to pick up a
guitar and use it like a weapon. Yet more than punk music itself, it was the
creative burst it triggered that radically shaped 80s pop and heralded an
unending stream of inspired performers.

Although we often speak of the British and American golden age of post-punk from
78 to 84, with artists that included Talking Heads, Joy Division, PIL and Devo,
France (together with Switzerland and Belgium) joined the movement too. Today,
on a new album, the group Nouvelle Vague have paid tribute to this sumptuous
Frenchy period clothed in the nihilism of punk, along with bitterness fuelled by
the economic crisis and, paradoxically, the bewitching spirit of pop.

lts title, Couleurs sur Paris (Colours on Paris) is based on both a famous
postcard collection and Oberkampfs 1981 punk anthem, and reflects the period,
which oscillated between elation and despair. Written by artists sometimes known
as the modern young people and including faux naïf electropop nursery rhymes
by Elli and Jacno (Anne Cherchait lamour, 1979), Lio (Amoureux Solitaires, 1980)
and Etienne Daho (Week-end à Rome, 1984), along with Lili Drop (Sur ma Mob,
1979) and Taxi Girl (Je suis déjà Parti, 1986), the songs clearly express
the hopes and disappointments of the day.

The sense of melancholy suggested by the disenchanted lyrics of
Déréglée - performed in 1977 by Marie-France, an icon of Paris
nightlife - is even more noticeable on the 1981 hit by The Civils, who cynically
sang, Tonight, theyre dying in Chad, but lm buying my dream Walkman before
taking it to the chorus: The economic crisis is fantastic, decadence is the
right feel.

The punk shockwave con also be felt in the music of bands who radically shaped
French culture and song. Like Rouen, with Les Dogs (Sandy, Sandy, 1982), every
provincial town and city in France began to produce bands at the end of the 70s
and the start of the 80s. Wunderbachs 1983 punk pamphlet Oublions lAmérique
was a foretaste of what is now called alternative punk, a genre that won acclaim
in 1988 with Mano Negras Mala Vida. Indochine, French pop legends for the last
thirty years, also encouraged the trend in the summer of 1983 with Laventurier,
after a first single brimming with the spirit of rebellion, Dizzidence Politik.

Rita Mitsouko, the duo that emerged from the underground Parisian punk scene of
the late 70s, rocketed to stardom in 1984 with Marcia Baïla. Equally baroque,
TC Matic - the first band fronted by Belgian singer Arno - released an ironic,
political underground hit in 1983: Putain, putain. Other artists fuelled a
post-punk movement that explored the romanticism of machines and the darkness of
new wave, including the cult, much-neglected duo from Nancy, Kas Product (So
Young but so Cold, 1982) and Switzerlands Stephan Eicher, whose Two People ln A
Room (1985) followed on from Eisbaer, a hit in a more underground style written
with Grauzone in 1981. However, the genres most influential practitioners were
certainly Noir Désir. From their first single in 1987 (Où veux-tu qu je
rgarde?), they won mainstream success with their unique fusion of 80s gloom and
power rock. Beyond from the meteoric success of Bordeauxs Gamine (Voilà les
Anges, 1988) and the subversive spirit of Jad Wio (Ophélie, 1989), French
post-punk reached its climax with the success of Noir Désir, Rita Mitsouko,
Stephan Eicher and Manu Chao, whose albums reigned supreme in the 90s French
charts. From the underground scene to gold records: the eternal story of pop.

Tracklist:
01 - Nouvelle Vague - Voilà les anges (3:36) 
02 - Nouvelle Vague - Laventurier (4:22) 
03 - Nouvelle Vague - Week-end à Rome (4:39) 
04 - Nouvelle Vague - Putain putain (3:10) 
05 - Nouvelle Vague - Marcia Baïla (4:18) 
06 - Nouvelle Vague - Anne cherchait lamour (3:47) 
07 - Nouvelle Vague - Ophélie (3:28) 
08 - Nouvelle Vague - So Young but so Cold (3:25) 
09 - Nouvelle Vague - Sandy Sandy (2:44) 
10 - Nouvelle Vague - Mala Vida (3:39) 
11 - Nouvelle Vague - Où veux-tu que je rgarde (3:45) 
12 - Nouvelle Vague - Amoureux solitaires (2:10) 
13 - Nouvelle Vague - 2 People in a Room (3:29) 
14 - Nouvelle Vague - Sur ma mob (4:29) 
15 - Nouvelle Vague - Déréglée (2:37) 
16 - Nouvelle Vague - Je suis déjà parti (4:09)

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