Hot List: Charlotte Gainsbourg

There are a lot of things about France that, despite trying hard to understand, I just can’t wrap my head around. First—tight pants. The men there wear the tightest pants you have ever seen, and it is not cute. Not at all. In fact, it’s really disturbing.

By CC Staff

Second—Serge Gainsbourg. Monsieur Gainsbourg is a French icon—a singer, songwriter, film writer, philanderer, sex god. Actually you might as well think of him as the second coming of the Messiah. People there worship him, and I can’t quite figure out why.

I haven’t heard a ton of his music—French music is another thing that I don’t get. It’s almost good… but not so much. And Serge is just about the farthest thing from sexy that I can imagine. Ok—in his younger years he wasn’t so bad, but I imagine he wore really tight pants too.

His daughter Charlotte, on the other hand, personifies French beauty. She is just stunning. And talented. Serge rocketed young Charlotte to fame at the tender age of 13 by recording a duet with her called Lemon Incest. Yup, you read that right.

He also wrote a film for his young daughter in which she was stripped down, and crawls seductively into bed with her loving, doting father, The whole thing is just weird. Which makes it kind of amazing that she seems so normal now.

Charlotte has been acting in French films for decades now winning awards all over the place. Check out The Science of Sleep if you’d like to see her acting chops—the movie is great and she stars opposite the adorable Gael Garcia Bernal.

In the 80’s she recorded her first solo album, and since then has made numerous appearances on others artist’s records. She sang backup on Badly Drawn Boy’s Have You Fed the Fish, and appears in Madonna’s What It Feels Like for A Girl (she does the spoken intro).

But she finally released another solo album—5:55—and in my opinion, it’s beautiful. Charlotte is shy on the mic—apparently in order to record, she had to sing with a sheet over her head That shyness comes through, but it makes the album somewhat mysterious, and haunting. It’s almost as if Charlotte is letting you in on a little secret.

She worked with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and 5:55 has the same kind of sleepy, far-off sound that Radiohead has as well. Doesn’t hurt either that Air provides the melodies. With the swooning piano on all the tracks, listening to 5:55 makes you feel like you’re in a different, trippy universe.

The stand out track on the album for me is the Jarvis Cocker ( of Pulp—what an awesome band) penned Everything I Can Not See. The melody is striking, with minor chords that create an amazing sound. It made my head spin a little. Jamais (Never, in English) is also great—scorching, and toxic.

This album is soothing—the sounds could lull you pleasantly to sleep except that the lyrics are so stunning, and Charlotte’s voice so captivating you won’t want to miss a second.

Her last solo effort was a good 20 years ago—let’s hope we don’t have to wait that long for her next.