TamTam Books News Tuesday, March 30, 2004: Drat! I left London before seeing or hearing the new Jane Birkin album. And yes, Bryan Ferry sings the Roxy Music classic "In Every Dreamhome a Heartache" on the album with Ms. Birkin. Here's a review from the Guardian: Jane Birkin, Rendez-Vous (EMI) David Peschek Friday March 26, 2004 The Guardian Buy Rendez-Vous at Amazon.co.uk Jane Birkin's first album after the death of lover and workmate Serge Gainsbourg reimagined his music in North African idioms. This, the second, though infused with Gainsbourg's smoky, laconic charms, proves that Birkin remains an iconic presence in her own right. An album of (largely) subtly contrived duet and collaborations, its indisputable centrepiece is an electronically enhanced version of Roxy Music's In Every Dreamhome a Heartache. Bryan Ferry sings the way faded velvet looks, and to hear Birkin sing "deluxe and delightful" (she's describing an inflatable sex doll) is to be utterly devastated. Portishead's Beth Gibbons contributes the haunted ripple that is Strange Melody, and almost everyone else (Caetano Veloso, Paulo Conte, various continental luminaries) realises that their job is to show Birkin in the best possible light, which isn't exactly hard. Only Placebo's bleating Brian Molko lets her down, his drama-queen histrionic Smile appallingly hammy. "Did she love the fragility of flowers and of birds?" Birkin enquires, rhetorically, at one point. In the distance, violins quiver. You realise, unworthily, that you're in the presence of an entirely un-English sophistication. Tosh // 6:44 AM ______________________ Comments: Post a Comment
Drat! I left London before seeing or hearing the new Jane Birkin album. And yes, Bryan Ferry sings the Roxy Music classic "In Every Dreamhome a Heartache" on the album with Ms. Birkin. Here's a review from the Guardian: Jane Birkin, Rendez-Vous (EMI) David Peschek Friday March 26, 2004 The Guardian Buy Rendez-Vous at Amazon.co.uk Jane Birkin's first album after the death of lover and workmate Serge Gainsbourg reimagined his music in North African idioms. This, the second, though infused with Gainsbourg's smoky, laconic charms, proves that Birkin remains an iconic presence in her own right. An album of (largely) subtly contrived duet and collaborations, its indisputable centrepiece is an electronically enhanced version of Roxy Music's In Every Dreamhome a Heartache. Bryan Ferry sings the way faded velvet looks, and to hear Birkin sing "deluxe and delightful" (she's describing an inflatable sex doll) is to be utterly devastated. Portishead's Beth Gibbons contributes the haunted ripple that is Strange Melody, and almost everyone else (Caetano Veloso, Paulo Conte, various continental luminaries) realises that their job is to show Birkin in the best possible light, which isn't exactly hard. Only Placebo's bleating Brian Molko lets her down, his drama-queen histrionic Smile appallingly hammy. "Did she love the fragility of flowers and of birds?" Birkin enquires, rhetorically, at one point. In the distance, violins quiver. You realise, unworthily, that you're in the presence of an entirely un-English sophistication. Tosh // 6:44 AM
