Friday's French music break - Brice Conrad, "Fleur du mal"

Friday's French music break this week is the debut single from a young singer-songwriter with an obvious passion for words, an ear for a melody and a distinctive voice that certainly won't leave you indifferent.

Brice Conrad (screenshot official video)

Brice Conrad is perhaps not a name with which you're familiar, but given the quality of "Fleur du mal" and the critical reception it has had, he could well be someone to watch.

"Fleur du mal" is not an in-your-face type of song with an upbeat tempo, overproduced studio sound and mindless lyrics guaranteed to make it a commercial hit  - far from it.

And that perhaps marks it out from a lot of other popular music you can hear on the radio.

Conrad belongs to the new generation of French pop-folk singers, relying on intelligent lyrics (perhaps a little too clever) a distinctive voice and a melody that might at first be irritating, but grows on you.

In fact, amongst all that "boom boom, yeah, yeah" stuff you can hear on the radio it comes across as refreshing and a proper listen to the lyrics reveals a talent for writing and an elegant use of French.

So what's it all about? Is it a reference to Charles Baudelaire's volume of poetry published in 1857 dealing with decadence and eroticism? Probably not.

The story of a relationship gone wrong? Maybe.

Or the anguish and torment of an artist typically expressing himself in being able to "feel good when everything goes wrong"?

Hmmmn.

Brice Conrad (screenshot official video)

The official video might provide a few clues.

Make what you will of the lyrics, there's no denying their poetic nature and that's perhaps the  key to the song's real appeal.

Conrad, who cites Ben Harper, Radiohead, Yodelice, and Raphaël (the French singer, not the painter) as among his musical influences, is currently working on his debut album and a second single is due for release in autumn.

For the moment though, here's "Fleur du mal".

Take a listen and decide what you think.

And as always, have a great weekend.

Friday's French music break - Zaz, "La Fée"

Friday's French music break this week comes from a singer who over the past year has had phenomenal success in France.

Zaz (screenshot from Le Figaro video)

Zaz fair burst on to the country's music scene in 2010 with her self-titled debut album totting up sales of 500,000 +

It spent over two months in the top spot and generated two hit singles; "Je veux" and "Le long de la route".

The 31-year-old was nominated in the category "Best newcomer" at the French equivalent of the Grammys - les victoires de la musique - losing out to the group Lilly Wood & The Prick, but she picked up "Song of the year" for Je veux.


Clearly Zaz isn't an overnight sensation. She has worked long and hard to get where she is and has probably been helped by a voice that is markedly different from anyone else's and a style of music that is distinctive with its jazz, folk, pop and street influences.

Her latest single, La Fée (the fairy) is also taken from her debut album and is one of three tracks written for her by singer-songwriter Raphaël.

La Fée (screenshot from lyricstranslate.com)

It is - quite appropriately - enchanting, and once again displays the unique quality of her voice and her ability to use it almost as an instrument.

So without further ado here's La Fée

For those of you who understand French enjoy the magic of the video.




If you need a translation of the lyrics, you'll find a rather good one here.

And just to compare and contrast, here's the version as sung by the person who penned the song, Raphaël.



Bon weekend.

French TV channel slaps daytime ban on singer's video

Clearly one of France's national television channels, M6, is taking its responsibility to look after the moral welfare of this country's youth seriously.

It has decided that the video accompanying singer-songwriter Raphaël's latest single is "too violent to be shown during daytime hours" and has banished it to late at night or the wee hours of the morning when young children and teenagers are safely tucked up in bed.

screenshot of French singer Raphaël from his latest video

The problem, it would appear to be, is the sight of a "frail young woman being kidnapped by two hooded men" in the clip of "Bar De L'hôtel".

Yes the broadcaster, whose sister channel W9 recently offer viewers of all ages the chance to watch the delights and saucy goings-on of "Dilemma"; reality TV that left little to the imagination (albeit shown at a respectable past-the watershed hour) has decided that Raphaël's video oversteps the mark.

As the website Le Post points out, it might be less graphic and certainly far from being as violent as other clips that M6 regularly broadcasts during the day, but as far as the channel is concerned the agreement it has with the television watchdog Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel, CSA, means that it has an obligation to protect the sensibilities of younger viewers.

Fans and the simply curious though need have no fear of not being able to see the video.

It is of course out there on the Net for everyone to see, on the singer's official website, YouTube, Dailymotion and and elsewhere, and perhaps thanks to M6 is happily picking up a steady flow of hits.

Take a look and judge for yourselves.