Friday's French music break - Indila, "Dernière Danse"

Friday's French music break this week is a worm.

Not, not the slithery thing you'll find in the garden, but in the musical sense of "a song that gets stuck in your head and just won't go away".

It's "Dernière Danse", the debut solo single from Indila.

Indila (screenshot from "Dernière Danse" official video)

At first the song doesn't sound up to much.

It's almost as though the melody seems to be undecided as to what exactly it is and where it's going.

The production (by Indila's husband, DJ Skalp) "wanders" at times with the melody not quite knowing what it's supposed to be. But that's probably down to the oriental meets French chanson "fusion". It's a mix which lends the song a certain hypnotic feel.

Because there's a definite oriental flavour to "Dernière Danse" which make it more than the run-of-the-mill sort of French song you might well be used to hearing.

In addition, the 24-year-old (although at the moment she refuses to disclose personal details and her exact age is "whatever the person interviewing her" wishes to give her), who has already sung on releases from the likes of Youssoupha, Rohff and Soprano, also has a pretty "interesting" voice. And that's not being dismissive

What comes across initially (to some ears perhaps) as a somewhat whiny pitch (oh dear, this really isn't "selling" the song or the singer is it?) in fact develops into something very distinctive and well-suited to the unusual melody.

Indila most definitely has a sound which sets her aside from many other female artist you're likely to hear on mainstream radio stations in France.

Perhaps though the comparison to (Edith) Piaf, which she finds flattering, is a little far fetched.

Finally there are the intelligent lyrics which, as Indila says, "recount the history of a young person of foreign origin (in France) facing everyday racism and how that makes her feel."

Anyway, "Dernière Danse" has - with reason - been getting plenty of airplay and is currently at number two in the French charts, only being kept off the top by Pharrell William's "Happy".


And Indila is apparently preparing an album, also produced by her husband.

In the meantime though, here's the official clip of "Dernière Danse" which has already been viewed more than four million times on YouTube.

Give it a listen - and maybe then another.

Bon week-end.

Friday's French music break - Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, "Get Lucky"

Friday's French music break this week comes from perhaps one of this country's most successful and, within their particular genre, influential groups - Daft Punk.

It's "Get Lucky", a song that in the words of a review in The New Yorker "lopes along in a soft disco thump, seductive but not ecstatic."

Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers (on guitar) screenshot from YouTube Saturday Night Live video

Co-written by the duo that make up Daft Punk - Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo - "Get Lucky" also features Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers (remember Chic?).

Yes, it really did take four people to collaborate on a song with minimal lyrics.

But who cares? This is dance music after all. Plus it includes the unmistakable touch of Rodgers on guitar.

"Get Lucky" is the first track to be released (in perhaps the cleverest and most titillating of marketing campaigns) from Daft Punk's fourth studio album "Random Access Memories" which, although most reviewers recognise it as an attempt by the group to "ditch the electronic beats, house and techno that first elevated them to fame" still delivers - big time.

For Elisa Bray writing in The Independent, the album is one that takes the listener on a journey which "for all its musical twists and turns has its feet firmly on the dancefloor" (???).

While Will Hermes in Rolling Stone describes it as an "awesome ride" even if - after five years of waiting, it's nothing like the Electronic Dance Music set that everyone had been expecting.

Yes, a lot has been written about both the single and the album - and that was before either had been released.

Anyway they're both available now and for any lovers of dance music "Get Lucky" is definitely something to get your head bobbing, shoulders swinging and - maybe in the privacy of your own home - hips a-groovin'.

Given the song's release date, maybe those who choose France's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest should have thought about getting in touch with Bangalter and de Homem-Christo ahead of time.

After all, just look at the countries in which it has already charted at number one - Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Switzerland and UK.

Oh well.

Enough words.

Enjoy.