– Customer review on 29/05/2011

This cd has some kind of unofficial relationship with The French Film Festival [not sure if that is an Australian based festival or not]...perhaps these songs featured in movies there or something, I don't know.

Nearly all of the songs have accoustic guitar of one kind or another [I think one song has steel stringed accoustic guitar]. One track at least has electric guitar, and there is a slightly techno sounding song, but, for the most part, it is just gentle, catchy pop music.

The cd has various artists. Songs are performed either entirely in French, or English, or a combination of the two. There are male and female singers and, on at least one track, a male and female will sing together.

The sound quality on this cd is superb-very rich and the accoustic guitars shine.

On the first cd, the last three tracks appeal to me the most. "It ain't no crime" has a female vocalist, singing in English, not in an unlike manner to last century's Billie Holiday, who had one of that century's most distinctive voices [copied unswervingly by Madeleine Peyroux in recent years]. "Tant pis pour tout" is a pretty song with very nice lead guitar work and a nice strumming pattern to boot. There is also a cover of Visage's "Fade to grey" which is sung by a female and has some ambient music to close out the song...new agey stuff which works well...streetscape noises and other kinds of sounds. Nice.

The second cd is the one which I like the best and has most of the songs I like best: "The songs that we sing" is sung by a female in English and is a spacious pop song, featuring violins and some pretty bell melodies [my pick as the best song on this compilation]. "Mon uncle" must be, I assume, an instrumental from the movie of a few decades ago. It has a piano accordion playing, I think, as well as an arrangement not unlike you'd hear from a Salvation Army band...lots of brass...tubas and the like. "J'te jure" is a catchy song featuring a very nice harmonica melody and a French, male vocal. On the cds for sale here in Australia, I think that this is one song listed as having had airplay on Australian radio [going on memory]. Very nice strumming pattern on the accoustic guitar too. "New soul" is probably the second song mentioned as getting airplay here. It features in one of Apple's ads for its computers or something. The female singer and the song sounds of Bjork. "Lily Dale" is a song which grows on you. A deep, sensual male vocalist, singing in French, has a touch of the Barry Whites about him...a very sensual sounding song, though it may be a lament, going on some English lyrics in the song. Lastly, "Whistle" is another interesting and pleasant song. May be another dark themed song, but I'm not sure. Has a pretty, whistled melody at the end.

There a couple of songs [at least] which mark this cd out as one for adults. These occur on the second disc: "F_ me tender" and "Sing sing". I've censored the spelling of the first song I mention, but you get an uncensored version on the cd. It's sort of a variation on Elvis Presley's "Love me tender". The second song I mention has a line about drinking blood, but that's about as weird as it gets. There may be more confronting lyrics in the French sung songs, but I don't speak French and can't therefore comment on this.

In any case, this cd is listenable from beginning to end and has a few songs which are particularly good. This is a great cd to chill out too, or play on dates or at restaurants or whathaveyou.