Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5:55
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Charlotte GainsbourgEdition: Music CD
Format: Enhanced
CD Release Date: 2007-04-24
Music Label: Vice Records
Soundtracks:
- 5:55
- AF607105
- THE OPERATION
- TEL QUE TU ES
- THE SONGS THAT WE SING
- BEAUTY MARK
- LITTLE MONSTERS
- JAMAIS
- NIGHT-TIME INTERMISSION
- EVERYTHING I CANNOT SEE
- MORNING SONGUS BONUS TRACKS
- SET YOURSELF ON FIRE
- SOMEWHERE BETWEEN WAKING AND SLEEPING
Free Music Notes for 5:55
Free Music Review: Atmospheric.
Hit: 4 Stars
Her mother Jane Birkin added her breathy, orgasmic tones to her father Serge Gainsbourg's "Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus".
And the family resemblances are unavoidable in Charlotte's album, that voice hesitant, barely a whisper at times, but shimmering with sexiness.
What saves this album from being a lot of Gallic mumblings bound up in its own self-importance is the heavweight help the family name commanded.
The result of Gainsbourg's meeting with Nicolas Godin, one half of French electronica duo Air, at a Radiohead concert in Paris, 5:55 is a carefully crafted gem.
Gainsbourg's voice is as slight and breathy as her mother's, but lyrics by Jarvis Cocker and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon create a hazy, Gauloise-inflected intimacy against full, string-rich arrangements by producer Nigel Godrich, those Parisian maestros of wafting electronica "Air" are on board, as is "Radiohead" producer Nigel Godrich and Nigerian percussionist Tony Allen, lauded by Brian Eno as "the greatest musician on the planet".
The title track "5:55" and the first single "The Songs That We Sing stand out", the former haunting and piano-led, the latter carrying an infectiously boisterous chorus.
At times Gainsbourg's thin voice and finishing-school vowels can grate, but the album as a whole is emotive, rewarding and compelling - a world away from feather-strewn beds and dodgy filial duets.
We get the mildly erotic, such as the teasing "Beauty Mark", and we get something like beat poetry in "AF607105", with its stark lines about air travel.
There's also big helpings of the kind of wistful balladeering only the French can muster.
4 * * * * and 1/2.
The Originals
Jane Birkin et Serge Gainsbourg
Songs That We Sing
L'EffronteeGolden Door
5:55 Poster
Even without Charlotte Gainsbourg's musical heritage, the prospect of an album written and performed by Air, with lyrics by Jarvis Cocker (ex-Pulp) and Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) would be enough to entice most sensible music fans. But as a combination, 5.55 is far better than probably even the participants imagined it would be. The combination of Air's trademark glide complements Gainsbourg's voice (which is less singing and more melodic, breathy recitation), to the point where, had the lyrical input been less than stellar, this could easily have sent the listener to sleep. Instead, the emotional detachment in Gainsbourg's delivery acts as a foil to the passion presented in the lyrics. For their part, Cocker and Hannon excel with their trademark darkly humourous input- the passenger on a doomed flight in "AF407105", the surgery/seduction metaphor in "The Operation", or the venomous "Jamais" being particular standouts.Even though 5.55 bears all the hallmarks of its creators (if so inclined, one could see this as a new Air album, or imagine Cocker or Hannon singing the lyrics), it's even more than the sum of its parts and is almost certainly one of the best albums you'll hear in 2006 or beyond. --Thom Allott
This collaboration has produced a perfect result, wherein all involved have raised the finished work to spectacular heights. Interspersing her recordings into her acting career, Charlotte Gainsbourg has come out with her second full-length release. The music was written and performed by Air, with lyrics by Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon. All 13 tracks (two more than on the European release which appeared in 2006) are finely wrought in every regard, with the arrangements and production moving liquid-like across the set, making for a gorgeously seductive whole. Though significantly different-sounding, Gainsbourg shares with her father Serge an approach to singing that uses speaking tones and timbres. Her whispered voice adds a powerful intimacy to the songs, while Air's musical structures create landscapes and cityscapes through which she wanders, purposefully, suffused with mystery and secrets. The melodies, built for her voice, move with ethereal precision. Gainsbourg's human-scaled singing and Air's unassumingly grand settings create an emotional tension throughout. The album offers atmospheric reveries, pop smarts, and sly invention. --David Greenberger
International movie star, fashion icon, and music royalty (daughter of French pop icon Serge Gainsbourg) makes her US debut. Already platinum in France with worldwide sales of over 500,000. The US CD release includes two previously unavailable bonus tracks, two music videos, and a video interview with Charlotte. Music by Air, lyrics by Jarvis Cocker and The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon, and produced by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck).
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