Blame It On The Bossa Nova

Nouvelle Vague: Love Will Tear Us Apart
from Nouvelle Vague (Luaka Bop 2005)

Nouvelle Vague: Just Can't Get Enough
from Nouvelle Vague (Luaka Bop 2005)

Nouvelle Vague: I Melt with You
from Nouvelle Vague (Luaka Bop 2005)


Let me first start off this post by shouting out the homey Jenn for putting me up on this CD, something for which I'm sure I never would have picked up on had she not told me about it.

Even though the album has been out for a minute, I've only started to really listen to it within the past few days and decided, what the hell I might as well throw up something about it. Unfortunately I don't know much about them, save for what the liner notes and a few online sources have provided, including their own website and from these sources one can gather that the group is made of Marc Collins and Olivier Libaux, two musician/producers who took a group of female singers and some 80's punk and new wave songs and ripped out the essence of the tracks and remade them as pseudo Bossa Nova songs. Does it work? Not always, but when it does work each chanteuse delivers a very enjoyable song and in the end isn't that what we all want from our music.

For this post I took the three most recognizable songs from the album (though not necessarily the three best) to give the uninitiated a taste of what the album has in store. Just Bossa Nova enough to delineate it from the kitschy these tracks scream of an Astrud Gilberto influence. Each flowery voiced singer delivers a staid, yet respectable performance while keeping the melodic essence of the song intact.

Love Will Tear Us Apart opens with the soft sounds of waves coming in on the beach and then breaks down to a smoky, sweaty rendition of the Joy Division hit. The second track, I Just Can't Get Enough is a much more endearing song, stripping the synth sounds of the original and replacing it with driving percussion's and rhythmic acoustic guitars and piano, the breakdown seals the deal with it's toe tapping drums and piercing whistle. In it's own way, I Melt With You works even though the original has a greater hold on me. Gone is the faster tempo of the original, making the opening line "moving forward using all my breath" almost ironic as it's interpreted by the singer of the Nouvelle Vague version. But it's the childlike xylophone and the lumbering, almost country-western percussion that makes the song enjoyable, and it succeeds despite the sometimes heavy-handedness of the vocalist to carry the song farther than it's allowed.

As a whole the album is very successful in that every song is one that can be listened through in it's entirety, which is something of an exception nowadays. But coming from someone who's exposure to punk and alternative is minimal at best, this is probably something you would want to pick up only if you want to hear a tribute album that comes out of left field.