Search - Alain Bashung :: L'Imprudence

Brilliant

Gilles Forestier | 10/14/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well, you don't know that guy. Right? Americans maps on kid's rooms show only America. European maps show the whole world. That makes all the difference.
Bashung comes from the awful 80'. Bittesweet basic euro rock singer (Nena alike). More like Talk Talk in fact. And curiously, he followed the same way these guys did.
The result ? After being a "pop star" on the old Europe, Bashung gave birth to monsters like "play blessures", more far off than any "weird" american/english bands. He also made "Chatterton", more civilized but basically vicious. the rest is okay, but quite unbalanced.
Now he relaeses what is reckoned as a dark album. No dear goth, it's not a cure album. No self-indulgence, no pathetic post-adolescent pseudo-spleen (for a man around 45), no "I kill you". No fatalism too, just mature death album.Sounds sometimes like Massive Attack, Holger Czuckay, Air, Talk Talk (laughing stock era), Robert Wyatt (Dondestan). Ah, yes, it could even sound as if Randy Newman instead of becoming an Warner Bros music rep, made depressive music.
Well, it would be best to know french to really appreciate the lyrics, but basically if you like Brel, Arno you'll like Bashung."

Dark

ATG | CA | 04/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a beautiful, but very dark, album by Bashung. The songs are excellent and the orchestration is superb (string orchestra + electronics + guitars by Marc Ribot and Arto Lindsay)

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Velvet and bone

moineau | Astoria, OR United States | 11/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

""l'imprudence", the chef d'oeuvre du maître bashung. i loved this album the moment it came into my life, in fact, it is has saved my life several times: just put the headphones on and follow a tale about why it's good to stay alive especially when you're dying. amazing compositions, orchestrated with big swells of strings and post-modern instrumentation, with the velvet voice of bashung above and below, beautiful melodies that will haunt you until the next time you listen. "bleu pétrole" is bashung's last album and many like it better as it is a return to his beautiful ballads. i listen to a lot as well, but when i need a real shot in the arm from the heart of what music does best, inspire you, i go to "l'imprudence" and i probably will for the rest of my life. it's magic."