Liz Says, “Vive La Musique Francaise!”
Carla Bruni is a woman of many talents. And also many languages. First noted for being an Italian supermodel, she’s now making her name as a French chanteuse, but you can read her web site in English. (She was born in Turin but moved to Paris when she was seven.) “Quelqu’un Ma Dit” (“Somebody Told Me”) is her first album, and I sincerely hope it’s the first of many. Not only does she sing and play guitar beautifully, but she’s the author or co-author of the majority of songs on the album, and they’re all excellent.
I’ve been adding a lot of French music to my iPod lately, thanks to a brief, brilliant scene in “Talladega Nights” (yes, there were many such scenes in that movie) where the French driver is in his race car with a French version of “Paint It Black” playing in the background. And I’ve discovered via iTunes that the French have created A LOT of really cool music. Carla Bruni is just the latest installment.
I guess you could classify “Quelqu’un Ma Dit” as Folk, or maybe French Pop, but to me, it’s more a matter of A Woman and Her Guitar. There’s so much intimacy in the music, it’s almost as if you’re reading the paper in your living room while the woman who lives in the apartment upstairs is practicing her guitar--and sounding fabulous doing it. Bruni is just that comfortable with the instrument and the music. Not to mention enormously talented.
There’s a definite jazzy feel to some of the songs, and some are just fun and playful. Like “Raphael,” in which Bruni sings the praises of the letters in her lover’s/husband’s name. And the last song in the collection, “La Derniere Minute” (“The Last Minute”), which is a minute in length, has a quick, desperate feel to it, just as a last minute should. “Le Toi du Moi” is peppered with some Spanish-sounding guitar, while “L’Excessive” has a distinctive ‘60s feel to it.
Alas, with the songs sung in French, I’m not always clear on what Bruni is singing about, even with what’s left of my high school and college French. But I love what I read on her web site about her lyrics: “The expression of the female libido is not something that Bruni will shy away from. Perhaps more important than her candour is a desire to reverse sexual archetypes. Woman can behold man. Woman can appreciate man’s beauty. Woman can be subject.”
Sounds good to me.
Overall, “Quelqu’un Ma Dit” is a leisurely, mellow, acoustic walk through Paris. Listening to it, you feel like you’re sipping espresso in a sidewalk cafe, probably wearing a beret and talking to someone named Didier. Hey, with my limited vacation budget, I’ll take it.