I was born in Paris, but only lived there for two years. Once I moved to the States, I only heard French being spoken sporadically. Still, to this day, whenever I hear French, my mind starts to melt. I'm like Jamie Lee Curtis with Italian in A Fish Called Wanda. Well, I don't exactly want to rip my clothes off, it's more of a crazy deja vu rush while simultaneously marveling at the beauty of the language. The first clip, by Francoise Hardy, is just smooth. Her voice, the strings, the little trumpet "Bum bum bum bum bum" that plays off her vocals, It never breaks a sweat.
This Jacques Brel (he's actually Belgian, but he sings in French) clip is amazing because not only does he have an incredible voice and write great lyrics, he also emotes and gesticulates like a performance artist. The lyrics are a bit off in this translation: he is "hearing" the chief office "on" his ass, he "hears" the voice all the time, the voice is smelling "of" garlic and bad alcohol.
Finally, France Gall is just a lot of fun. She was a teen idol of sorts in France, but her songs are really good. Note: I'll deal with Serge Gainsbourg in another post, he can't be contained in this one.
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