Friday’s French music break - Freedom Fry, “Shaky ground”

Feel like a “Na na na, Hey hey, Na na na” singalong?

Well this week’s Friday’s French music break can happily oblige.

It’s “Shaky ground” from the American-French duo “Freedom Fry”  comprising husband and wife Bruce Driscoll and Parisian-born Marie Seyrat.

Freedom Fry (Marie Seyrat and Bruce Driscoll) - screenshot from “Shaky ground - behind the scenes” video)

The single isn’t exactly new - it was first released in 2015 - but with its revamped French/English version now available (at least to listeners in this country) it has been getting a fair amount of airplay.

Described as an American Indie pop band, Freedom Fry’s music apparently (according to the blurb on their official site) “heavily bleeds the warmth and sunshine of their home state of California” and “skirts the lines between pop, folk and indie rock” while “always (being) blended with danceable rhythms and a singalong chorus.

Yes, well.

In brief that means while they’re unlikely to set the annals of music alight with originality (not-so-eager ears will probably have cottoned on to the similarity - in sound and style - between “Shaky ground” and The Lumineers’ 2013 hit “Ho Hey”) Freedom Fry are immensely easy to listen to and the singalong factor (no matter how annoyingly simple it might be) of the “Na na na, Hey hey, Na na na” chorus is undeniable.

Anyway it’s late August here in France, so who wants to listen to anything too challenging?

So, here you go. Ready? It’s a two-in-one video: first the English version followed by the French-English one…a total of seven minutes and 14 seconds with plenty of…“Na na na, Hey hey, Na na na’s”

Bon week-end!

Friday’s French music break - Céline Dion, “Encore un soir”

You know you’re in trouble when you have to admit that a song from a singer you normally can’t stand actually catches your fancy.

It happened several months ago when…er…(hang head in shame time) Justin Bieber’s “Love yourself” ear-wormed its way into this listener’s head.

A catchy, gentle number that, once Shazamed, revealed itself to be by the 22-year-old Canadian and ergo (apparently) totally inappropriate to anyone over the age of 15.

Still, it’s never a bad thing to admit to having questionable taste, and besides, it would have been churlish (in the ungentlemanly sense) and feeble to have pretended the song no longer appealed simply because it was from The Biebernator.

And…gulp…it has happened again.

No not another Bieber song, after all there’s only so far an adult man can accept to have become (albeit temporarily) a “Belieber” (where’s this vocabulary coming from) and this is Friday’s French music.

This time around it’s…wait for it…from his fellow Canadian and global super shrieker , Céline Dion.

Céline Dion (screenshot Celine Dion - Live in Montreal - “Encore Un Soir”)

OK, so she’s not French either, but “Encore un soir” (the title track of her soon-to-be released album) marks a return to her working together with the Grammy Award-winning French singer-songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman.

Now, you might be expecting the usual wailing, belting Las Vegas high notes from the 48-year-old mother of three. But no. This has Goldman’s talent written all over it, even if it was reportedly Dion who approached him rather than the other way around (as had been the case in 1996).

Best perhaps not to read too much into the death of her late husband René Angélil in January 2016 and the impact it might or might not have had on her choice of tracks on her new album OR her discernible fashion “relooking” or “transformation” (and let’s be frank, that could only take an upwards direction)

“Encore un soir” is unadulterated middle-of-the-road adult listening…and not unpleasantly so either.

So, sit back. Forget all those pre(mis)conceptions you might have about Dion (or Goldman, come to that), stop being so incredibly snooty about your musical taste credibility…and enjoy!

After all, the worst that could  happen is that you might like it….and if you don’t, you can always hit “stop”

Bon week-end.

Friday's French music break - Kids United, "On écrit sur les murs"

Friday's French music break enters 2016 with a song full of joyous good intent and suitably uplifting but with lyrics that are - to put it mildly - repetitive and borderline tedious.

Kids (doesn't that just grate, especially when the performers in question are French) United are the group who sing the Romano Musumarra and Jean-Marie Moreau penned title "On écrit sur les murs" originally recorded in 1989 by the late Demis Roussos.

Kids United (screenshot from official video)

But while Roussos simply featured "kids"...oops...children...in his (heartwarming) clip, those behind Kids United pull all the syrupy punches available by having the six band members warble their talented way through the complete three minutes.

French telly viewers might recognise a few of the faces (and voices) as 12-year-old Carla was the winner of the first season of "The Voice Kids" (clearly there's no getting away from the term) and eight-year-old Gloria also featured in the show.

Both 15-year-old Esteban and 10-year old Erza have competed in "La France a un incroyable talent".

Completing the line-up are 15-year-old Nilusi and 13-year-old Gabriel - whose talent show appearances are surely just a matter of some time in the not too distant future.

Sponsored by Hélène Segara (she of - among other things - the musical "Notre Dame de Paris" which was described by The Independent newspaper when the London production opened as "A load of old bells" fame) and Corneille (no, not the 17-century French tragedian, Pierre, but the German-born, Rwandan, French and English soul and funk singing Cornelius Nyungura), Kids United deliver a message of hope and inspiration by (and this is from the official site) "interpreting the most beautiful songs celebrating peace and hope."

If you managed to make it to the end of that sentence, here's another one - shorter.

All six are "veritable artists (don't cough of splutter - those marketing the product...er...the "project"...had to make it sound credible) passionate about singing."


Anyway it's all in a good cause - or at least some of it is - as part of the proceeds from record sales of the album "Un monde meilleur" (a "message of optimism and an ode to living together") from which the track has been taken, will go to UNICEF.

And that, regardless of hard-nosed commercial cynicism, has to be a good thing.

Plus, it beats pre-teens and adolescents tackling broken-hearted "Baby" lyrics at the ripe (old) age of 15

Doesn't it?

So, here's what you've been waiting for. Kids United with "On écrit sur les murs".

Happy listening et Bonne année!