Charlotte Gainsbourg, who returned to the music scene in the 2000s, is targeting the same international audience that her parents managed to attract from France back in the 1960s. One vital difference is that Charlotte is following in the Anglo-Saxon footsteps chosen by Phoenix and Air, with her sights firmly fixed on the USA.

Terrible Angels Charlotte Gainsbourg Terrible Angels (BECAUSE) 2011 Listen

The sound of 5.55 owed a lot to Britpop. Charlotte’s latest album looks elsewhere, drawing from electro-rock (Terrible angels) and the powerful rhythms of American hip hop (All the rain) preferred by the Californian, Beck.

The author of Loser, who has acted as master of ceremony in producing and composing most of the album’s studio and live tracks, has produced disco-punk ballads with a cold, synthetic edge that manage to be inflammable, danceable, rough and rounded all at once. Beck also succeeds in brilliantly combining harp chords and sepulchral pop vocals with moving cello chords on White telephone.

All of the creative partners chosen by Charlotte Gainsbourg are Anglo-Saxon. With Beck, they form a magical quartet in the shape of Conor O’brien from the band Villagers, whose folky Memoir stands apart from the rest of the album; New Zealander Connan Mockasin, composer and producer of Out of touch, which emanates gentle psychodelic vibrations; and Charlie Fink from the group Noah and the Whale on Got to let go, with the kind of sound that Lee Hazlewood might have been proud to perform accompanied by the voice of Nancy Sinatra.

The live interpretations of her major tracks, 5.55 and IRM, provide an opportunity to appreciate the presence exuded by Charlotte in front of the microphone, despite her concerns to the contrary before getting back on stage. With IRM and the very “aeriel” AF607105, fittingly composed by Air and Jarvis Cocker, her songs reveal a new substance, with a sensuality and warmth that were less pronounced in their original versions.

Both when playing live and in the studio, polymorphic Charlotte Gainsbourg sparkles in song, stage and screen. The good news is that brushing shoulders with the some of the best producers of modern pop has only made her shine out all the brighter.

Charlotte Gainsbourg Website

Charlotte Gainsbourg Stage whisper (Because Music) 2011