martedì, novembre 28, 2006

Hooray for Biolay



The man you see before you, this musical child of Gainsbourg who, unlike his father, hurts neither eyes nor ears as he delivers gently beautiful melodies and soft but sharp lyrics backed by lovely arrangements, has struck deep into my brain.

I have a feeling this song, "Los Angeles", is ubiquitous because I've heard it more times than I can count. Nobody else around me seems to have heard it, though. I've realized that since the concept album it's from, Rose Kennedy, came out while I was living in Paris it's possible that it was only ubiquitous there as background to that most emotionally sloppy and difficult period, and it stuck with me because that repeated trumpet rise perfectly delineates the resigned melancholy with which I wandered through a bad dream life.

This would mean people in Canada might not know about Benjamin Biolay (as is evidenced by his stuff's non-availability on Amazon.ca - I had both Rose Kennedy and Négatif on order for assfucking months before I gave up and borrowed them from Mr. N, and his lady was complaining last week about how he'd made her go into every record shop in Montréal trying to find more) and that's just wrong, wrong, do you read me, wrong. This is a bilingual country. If we have to put up with French/English cereal boxes, we might as well listen to lovely French music too.

Anyways, treat yourself. It's really nice. I don't like him as much as I like Serge Gainsbourg because I like the perv and the bizarre (I mean, a concept album about Rose Kennedy isn't a bad idea, but a concept album about killing your lover and her coming back as a rabbit that eats your head which has turned into a cabbage - which would you rather listen to?) but he sure is prettier. Some trivia for you: his wife Chiara is the daughter of Catherine Deneuve and and Marcello Mastroianni. HAWT.

10 commenti:

Anonimo ha detto...

i think it's more about the french being too lazy to export their music than canadians not wanting to import that shit.

there ain't much you can do if dollface doesn't have an international distributor... except order it on Amazon.fr!! god bless the internets.

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

Benjamin Biolay has EMI behind him, so I continue to blame Canadian distaste for French music.

Anyways, I'll just move back to Europe, that should sort everything out.

Melbine ha detto...

Ooh, lovely! Thank you for introducing him to me. I'm sad to say I hadn't heard of him but I'm even more sad to say I'm out of the loop musically these days.

Hey, does that mean he has a connection to Mary-Elizabeth Mastroianni then if his wife is one of Marcello's daughters? M-E is such a great actress.

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

I don't know - is Mary-Elizabeth related to Marcello?

Melbine ha detto...

Ha-ha, I'm such a dork. I'm thinking of Mary-Elizabeth MASTRANTONIO. I can see why my brain instantly thought of her, but still...whoops!

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

Seriously. Smith and Smythe.

Anonimo ha detto...

i think maybe you're just on crack.

http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_ss_hmv/701-4876866-6587514?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=Benjamin+Biolay+&Go.x=15&Go.y=5

i love you spliffy!! stop using the crack!

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

Amazon is on crack, Lady. What they call "in stock" online, they call "indefinitely delayed" once ordered.

Maybe YOU need MORE crack, cracker.

Anonimo ha detto...

What a sad trumpet. That song could put me into a trance. Lovely.

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

Yeah, it's pretty.