Triple threat Singer/Songwriter/Actress Charlotte Gainsbourg has quite an interesting background.
Her dad is French superstar crooner Serge Gainsbourg, best known for the steamy “Je t’aime Moi Non Plus,” originally featuring Brigitte Bardot, who Gainsbourg was romantically involved with at the time. She later married and begged him not to release the song, so Gainsbourg re-recorded it with actress/singer Jane Birkin (“Blowup”). The song was a huge hit, but banned in many countries.
It was a big influence on the then-later Disco movement, particularly famed producer Giorgio Moroder, who recorded a hit version with his muse Donna Summer. Cat Power also famously covered the song with another woman on a Gainsbourg tribute album, with singer/model Karen Elson, aka Jack White’s significant other.
Serge was, in many ways, the key influence for the electroclash movement in the late 90’s/early 2000’s as well.
In 1971, the year Charlotte was born, Gainsbourg and Birkin, by then romantically involved themselves, released Historie de Melody, a hugely influential work that influenced Air, Portishead, and Beck.
Now, nearly forty years later, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck have teamed up to release IRM, which Beck co-wrote the lyrics and produced with her, his most collaborative effort as a producer to date.
Beck also wrote the music and plays a lot of the instruments on the album and sings back-up on many tracks, making the CD often play like a Beck solo album with largely female vocals. It has so far reached 11 on the Billboard Alternative Albums charts.
The album was mostly inspired by Gainsbourg’s recent experiences, starring in director Lars Von Trier’s controversial film “Antichrist.” Anyone who has seen the uncompromising film can agree that the filming had to have been a traumatic experience that would have affected anyone adversely.
Adding to the matters was a head injury Gainsbourg suffered in 2007, an accident which nearly cost her life. The album is entitled IRM in homage to the MRI machine often found herself in to determine the extent of the damage. While inside the machine, Gainsbourg would compose songs and use music as an escape from her situation. This album marks the fruition of that material, and the results are pretty impressive.
IRM plays like a cross between the breathy, sexy, vibe of her father’s music with her mother, and Beck’s most recent album “Modern Guilt.” Check out “Le Chat Du café Des Artistes,” which could be the sequel to “Je t’aime Moi Non Plus,” with its breathy French lyrics and dreamy groove.
“La Collectionneuse” is likewise sung in French, and has a similar vibe.
Indeed, the entire album has a hypnotic groove, including the lead-off single “Heaven Can Wait.” The title track really does an effective job of putting the listener into that MRI machine, with its industrial-like sound effects and Bjork-ian rhythmical accompaniment.
“Me and Jane Doe” almost sounds like a better-produced version of Kimya Dawson or the Moldy Peaches.
“In the End” and “Vanities” are lovely ballads, and “Time of the Assassins” could be a sequel to Beck’s own “Got No Mind.” “Trick Pony” could be a Kills or PJ Harvey song, only with those trademark breathy Gainsbourg vocals. Single contender “Greenwich Mean Time” has a quirky percussive sensibility that veers between a near-Indian flavor and cocktail lounge-style vibes, all with a driving bass groove to back it up.
“Dandelion” is a loping, cowboy-style bluesy groover: think “Happy Trials”-meets-T.Rex. The only other song sung in French besides the aforementioned songs is “Voyage,” which sounds like a cruise on the ocean, combined with a jaunt into the jungle, only musical!
Fans of Beck should eat this up, especially those intrigued by the direction he was headed in with his last collaboration with Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley) on the critically-acclaimed, if commercially underwhelming “Modern Guilt.”
IRM pretty much picks up where that left off, only with female vocals, which actually improves things by making them warmer, more approachable. The main problem with “Modern Guilt” was its icier, distant tone, which was reminiscent of trip-hop pioneers Portishead, only with male vocals.
As with Portishead, the addition of a female to the mix makes the concoction much more accessible. Add to that the inherent drama that Gainsbourg herself brings to the mix lyrically and emotionally from her own background, and you’ve got a pretty compelling album that should rank among the better releases of 2010.
Mark Tramell
Staff Writer
