Track Listing

1. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Eloisia
2. Just Can't Get Enough - Eloisia
3. In a Manner of Speaking - Camille
4. Guns of Brixton - Camille
5. This Is Not a Love Song - Melanie Pain
6. Too Drunk To ****
7. Marian
8. Making Plans for Nigel - Camille
9. Forest - Marina Celeste
10. I Melt With You - Paavo Siljamaki
11. Teenage Kicks - Melanie Pain
12. Psyche - Sir Alice
13. Friday Night Saturday Morning - Daniella D'Ambrosio
14. Sorry for Laughing - Marina Celeste

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9374 in Music
• Released on: 2005-05-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description
Nouvelle Vague is a French electronica project initialized by multi-instrumentalists and producers Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux.

Marc first came to recognition with his band Ollano, known for their Francophone trip-hop / jazz-fusion and his movie soundtracks such as "the kidnapper's theme". He soon moved into the realm of club music, initially recording for the UK’s own Paper Recordings and progressing into a more creative and eclectic producer under the guises Avril on FCom, and Volga Select on Output Records.

Olivier Libaux has been involved with many French pop acts during the nineties and started working with Marc in 1998.

Nouvelle Vague which translates to "new wave" in English, and bossa nova in Portuguese, revisits a number of both Marc and Olivier's favorite tracks from the early eighties, taking in bands such as The Clash, Joy Division, and the Cure in a stunning combination of bossa nova, jazz and sixties pop.

Amazon.com
Recycling the 1980s sound has been in vogue lately, so it’s no surprise that the producing team known as Nouvelle Vague would find yet another way to mine the nostalgia for the early ‘80s, post-punk era. They’re doing it bossa nova style.

The disc opens with a rendition of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." It’s a charming start, and with a breathy chanteuse on vocals, it’s exactly the kind of sound that has some music critics proclaiming (admittedly with a touch of sarcasm) that Nouvelle Vague is the ironic dinner music for the new millennium. Unfortunately, this CD is somewhat less winning as it wears on. "Guns of Brixton" is annoying when done in a loungey mood, and sitting through "Too Drunk to F**k" in the wrong company could certainly ruin the amuse bouche. Nevertheless, the entertaining tracks do outweigh tiresome ones on this release. If this concept sounds like an interesting idea to you, you’re bound to get a smile from the execution. --Leah Weathersby

Customer Reviews

Post punk goes bossa nova & puts a smile on your face.
I have most of the originals & was quite into all of the original artists that this band has covered, in fact the 1977-1985 years were probably my favorite for pop/rock. Remakes/tributes are usually a mixed bag. Many are done by less talented groups to confirm their hipness & end up on cringe-inducing tribute collection albums. Those done by better artists often fail to capture the spirit of the original, or try to put a new twist on the song, but end up being really cheesy (and not in a good way). This collection of tracks seems like another gimmick, take a mix of post-punk hits & a few obscurities & give them a bossa nova facelift, making them a little bit more appealing & recognizable than the Muzak punk CD "Punk Rock Baby". However, I do feel that the album works quite well & doesn't become tiresome half way through listening to it. It's quite a lot better than another (recently-released) 80s remake CD I heard playing in a store not too long ago (I think the artist focused on politically-oriented songs from the era), which tried too hard & ultimately failed to either add anything new or match the originals in quality. Only 2 songs really fall short on those grounds & those 2 songs are probably the least known of the lot (KJ's "Psyche" & Josef K's "Sorry For Laughing"), so most people won't mind. The singer wavers between sounding like a number of different female singers (at their most subdued): Hope Sandoval (from Mazzy Star) (on #2 & #8 & #10), Bjork (without the high notes) on #4, the woman that sang that "Telephon Man" song from the 1970s on #6, & even a bit of Dusty Springfield (as on her version of "Windmills of My Mind") on #3.
This album isn't quite perfect, but I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could. Recommended more to those familiar with the originals or those who like quirky remakes than to bossa nova fans.

Here's the list of artists in case you don't recognize them:

1. Joy Division
2. Depeche Mode
3. Tuxedomoon
4. The Clash
5. PiL
6. Dead Kennedys
7. Sisters of Mercy
8. XTC
9. The Cure
10. Modern English
11. The Undertones
12. Killing Joke
13. The Specials
14. Josef K.

Deconstruction of 80s Punk and New Wave Classics
Nouvelle Vague (the album) is a French project to mine 80s Punk and New Wave classics, strip these songs to their bare, and suprisingly beautiful, melodies and have a French female voice perform the vocals originaly sung by a male singer. New Wave and Bossa Nova meet in Nouvelle Vague... the words mean the same thing in their respective languages, and now they are merged in the musical world. These covers are not for everybody, but the songs grow on you with repeated listening. A great chill out choice for those who grew up with the melodies. Endless queries of Who's that? will follow.

Nouvelle, but vague
Take classic post-punk songs, by bands like Joy Division, the Clash, the Cure, and the Dead Kennedys which. Now give them a new sound: bossa nova.

That's the particular gimmick of Nouvelle Vague, whose self-titled debut is an ironic little curiosity. And while it has pretty, tongue-in-cheek covers like a sultry "Love Will Tear Us Apart," it never really rises above the status of "ironic little curiosity."

It opens with the legendary Joy Division song, done to a trippy bossa nova sound, and backed by lifeguard whistles and waves crashing. Then it dips into a chipper cover of Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough," a rather plodding acoustic cover of the Clash's "Guns of Brixton," and a mildly engaging version of the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks."

There are sultrier numbers as well -- the Cure get a cover with sultry night noises and slow guitar in "A Forrest," and "Sisters of Mercy" is practically transcendental. But while I love the Dead Kennedys' "Too Drunk to F*ck," it doesn't translate well to an awkward bossa nova rhythm. It doesn't fit in, and is distractingly disjointed even when taken by itself.

Is "Nouvelle Vague" a pretty bossa nova covers album? Oh yes. Will it actually be listened to again? Hard to say. It's an interesting listen, but a novelty rather than an album in its own right.

Certainly Nouvelle Vague has excellent choice in retro rock music, since they chose several excellent groups to cover here, and often their best songs as well. Some are catchy, some are cutely sugary, some are ethereal ballads. They're pretty to listen to, but somehow the individual flavour of each song gets lost in the downtempo sound.

Whatever you think of the music, it can't be denied that Camille Dalmais has an exceptional voice. Except for that painful screech in "Too Drunk To F*ck," she veers between the breathiness of Hope Sandoval to the sultry croon of Beth Gibbons. With a hint of Bjork as well, to be honest.

In or out of Nouvelle Vague, Dalmais has enormous talent, while the rest of the album is merely "okay" or even "just good." Diverting, but not the sort of thing to listen to over and over.