Radiomatic "Ce Soir Apres Diner, Nous Passerons Des Disques..." (Self-Released, 2006)
ye-ye is an independently-released album from Pascal Parisot, Frederique Dastrevigne (aka "Fredda"), and a bunch of their buddies... >

Raphael "Hotel De L'Univers" (EMI, 2001)
The debut album by a highly-regarded modern rock star... Raphael's sound owes a fair amount to lush, louche '70s stars such as David Bowie and Bryan Ferry, although the ching-ching-ching, ching-ching-ching drone of the the tinny electric guitars also anchor him to the contemporary style of groups such as Coldplay and numerous flavor-of-the-week bands whose music winds up as wallpaper in teen-oriented TV shows. The emotionality sounds manufactured, and it's all a bit contrived and overly-controlled, although there's a definite appeal as well. Worth checking out; it might sound really nice in a mix of music.

Raphael "La Realite" (EMI, 2003)

Raphael "Caravane" (EMI, 2005)

Teddy Raye/Gabriel Delar "Twistin' The Rock" (Universal-Mercury, 2002)

Rick Rivers "L'Essentiel" (EMI-France, 2002)
Singer Dick Rivers originally hailed from the rock'n'rollin' combo, Les Chats Sauvages, who brought the gospel of Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke and Chubby Checker to eager French fans at the dawn of the 'Sixties... Rivers split the band and went solo in '62, pursuing a more "serious" interest in soul and, later, more introspective pop-rock. This collection is mostly pretty lively and includes fun covers of stuff like Bobby Freeman's "Do You Wanna Dance," Roy Orbison's "Blue Bayou" and "Tobacco Road," dutifully (and loosely) translated into French... The presence of two early Beatles tunes sugegsts that Rivers, like Los Shakers in Uruguay, was given first crack at Lennon/McCartney material, for hometown consumption, before other artists who weren't on EMI had a chance to cover them... There's one terrible song on this disc, but it's a lamentably incongrous later song, an awful track from the 1980s that sounds like a reject from an Olivia Newton-John session... Other than that, though, this is an enjoyable record. Fans of Nino Ferrer's soul discs might want to check Rivers out as well... There's also another L'Essential disc featuring Les Chats that's pretty fun.

Rose "Rose" (EMI, 2006) +

Les Rosemary's Babies "Lutte De Classe" (Island/Boucherie, 1991)
French-language '77-style punk and some softer, pub-rockish stuff as well... Not bad!

Olivia Ruiz "J'Aime Pas L'Amour" (Universal, 2003)
The debut album from a younger French pop-alt singer with family roots in Spain... She has some interesting arrangements (mixing in old-school musette accordion, a dash of gypsy violin, etc.) but there's an underpinning of standard-issue, commercial alt-rock, and a bit of Alanis Morrisette-ish vocal yowling that I don't find terribly interesting. The softer songs are alluring, in a Kate Bush-like way, but the loud passages are too grating for me. On the last track, she nods towards her Spanish-speaking heritage...

Olivia Ruiz "La Femme Chocolat" (Universal, 2005)

Les Rythmos "De Frisette A Candy" (Self-released)
Delightfully cute, early '60s Quebequois rock'n'roll, with a distinctive '50s sound that moves from Everlys-ish ballads to catchy upbeat Eddie Cochran-style numbers and back again with equal ease. These 1959-1967 recordings apparently originally came out on the Canadian wing of the Cadence label, but sadly seem to be out of print. Pity, since in many ways this duo puts the great Johnny Hallyday to shame. Many thanks to Mssr. Guy Lapointe, one of the original members of the band, for making this CD-R available for review... Anyone who likes this kinda stuff will be pretty happy getting in touch with him through their website, and picking up a copy for themselves.

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French Music Index
French Chanson & Musette

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