- Audio CD (29 Jun 2009)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Peacefrog
- ASIN: B0013NFN1E
- Other Editions: Vinyl
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 15,583 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product details |
Track Listings
| 1. Master And Servant |
| 2. Blister In The Sun |
| 3. Road To Nowhere |
| 4. All My Colours |
| 5. The American |
| 6. Heaven |
| 7. Parade |
| 8. Metal |
| 9. Ca Plane Pour Moi |
| 10. Our Lips Are Sealed |
| 11. God Save The Queen |
| 12. Say Hello Wave Goodbye |
| 13. So Lonely |
Product Description
Review
A third offering from cover artists supreme, Nouvelle Vague, shifts away from Brazilian bossa nova and towards America's musical hinterlands to take its classy covers credo in new and nimbly delightful directions.
The formula - conjured up by producers Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux - remains the same as before: musical sophistication and French savoir faire re-fashions punk and New Wave standards into lush, laid back, lounge-accented creations that are so far removed from the original conception that they succeed through sheer cheek and quite a lot of chic.
Besides the elegant lurch towards country and bluegrass, NV3 for the first time features original artists - accompanied by a nine-strong line-up of idiomatically secure female vocalists drawn from the four corners of the musical world - covering their own songs.
It's a lovely conceit, and one that deliciously succeeds in Terry Hall's gently sashaying duet with Me'lanie Pain of Our Lips Are Sealed (which he wrote for the Go-Gos); Ian McCulloch's dreamily nuanced All My Colours - again with the immaculate Ms Pain; and a strident take on Depeche Mode's Master & Servant with Martin Gore. Magazine's Parade gets a menacing makeover complete with vocals from Barry Adamson.
There's also a divertingly brushed-satin sheen cover of God Save The Queen (sans Johnny Rotten), a broodingly measured take on The Police's barnstorming So Lonely, a cheeky account of Plastic Bertrand's Ca Plane Pour Moi - one that perfectly combines Beach Boys harmonies with a ska-drenched rhythm section - and Soft Cell's Say Hello, Wave Goodbye as a more-than-convincing torch song.
Treatments of songs by Gary Numan, The Psychedelic Furs, Talking Heads and a sublimely hip re-working of Violent Femmes' Blister In The Sun - worth the price of the album alone - complete the package.
On paper, Nouvelle Vague shouldn't work. In practise it's a sublimely inventive concoction of clashing but surprisingly complementary moods and styles. Happily, NV3 shows little sign of Collin and Libaux running out of ideas or outstaying their welcome. --Michael Quinn
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As before a number of the songs (Road to Nowhere & Heaven) sound as though they have been chirped into hairbrushes in some delightfully innocent school karaoke. Others (particularly Master and Servant and Parade)sound as though they have been spat out by a tortured diva between vodka martinis and doomed love affairs.
While I greatly admire the guest singers themselves (Mr. Adamson and Mr. Gore in particular) and love the fact that they're in on the fun, I don't think they added much I'm afraid.
That said, if you like your cover versions to be inventive and fresh and/or you thoroughly enjoyed the previous output you're going to be satisfied and (dare I say it - go on dare!) thrilled. Word of warning: if you didn't enjoy the other Nouvelle Vague albums or are particularly precious about the original versions I doubt this will persuade you.
While I greatly admire the guest singers themselves (Mr. Adamson and Mr. Gore in particular) and love the fact that they're in on the fun, I don't think they added much I'm afraid.
That said, if you like your cover versions to be inventive and fresh and/or you thoroughly enjoyed the previous output you're going to be satisfied and (dare I say it - go on dare!) thrilled. Word of warning: if you didn't enjoy the other Nouvelle Vague albums or are particularly precious about the original versions I doubt this will persuade you.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This really shouldn't work, a slow tempo, sensual voiced re-working of a handful of 80's hits, yet somehow far more often than not this really does have that certain something that makes you return only to find it's even better than you remember.
So often when you just expect a simple, stripped down, reworking the rug is pulled out from under your feet as a completely unexpected style is used. The bonkers retro 'Metal' complete with French vocals really ought to be a disaster. I love Numan's work & view this as his finest track but this really works with a groovy hammond organ alongside some effective improvised vocal work. A million miles from the original and no bad thing either.
The ska version of plastic Bertrands early punk classic 'Ca plane pour moi' is somehow like a re-mix of the original.
'say hello wave goodbye' brings an even sadder reflection than the original while still reflecting the hopeful wishing of Soft Cells original.
The highlight for me is 'So lonely' which drops the pace to funereal and strips the vocals back to bare bones with sparse backing and lovely harmonies that is just so sad its awesome!
Not everything works. The more up-tempo covers just dont do it for me. This is all about ballads that allow the vocals to take centre stage where they belong and when the music takes over this is not so strong.
If you are fed up with has beens releasing awful cover albums, X-factor by the numbers warbling and middle class bimbo's pretending to be 'cockerney' then this is just the thing for you. There is nothing else like it out there, it is genuinely different and when it works it really is quite something.
So often when you just expect a simple, stripped down, reworking the rug is pulled out from under your feet as a completely unexpected style is used. The bonkers retro 'Metal' complete with French vocals really ought to be a disaster. I love Numan's work & view this as his finest track but this really works with a groovy hammond organ alongside some effective improvised vocal work. A million miles from the original and no bad thing either.
The ska version of plastic Bertrands early punk classic 'Ca plane pour moi' is somehow like a re-mix of the original.
'say hello wave goodbye' brings an even sadder reflection than the original while still reflecting the hopeful wishing of Soft Cells original.
The highlight for me is 'So lonely' which drops the pace to funereal and strips the vocals back to bare bones with sparse backing and lovely harmonies that is just so sad its awesome!
Not everything works. The more up-tempo covers just dont do it for me. This is all about ballads that allow the vocals to take centre stage where they belong and when the music takes over this is not so strong.
If you are fed up with has beens releasing awful cover albums, X-factor by the numbers warbling and middle class bimbo's pretending to be 'cockerney' then this is just the thing for you. There is nothing else like it out there, it is genuinely different and when it works it really is quite something.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Good consistent recording with Master & servant,Say Hello Wave Goodbye and Heaven being the highlights still plenty more tracks for them to cover from the 80's catalogue.
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