Search - Françoise Hardy :: Messages Personnels

A book or a CD?

Rodney Gavin Bullock | Winchester, Hampshire Angleterre | 07/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This splendid set of three Françoise Hardy CDs comes packaged in what the French call a 'long box'. Unlike the convential box set, the CDs are housed in the inside of the front and back covers of a book, edge to edge. This format allows for properly bound pages double the size of the usual CD insert and allow for larger photos and text.The CDs, with white anonymous labels, contain over 70 songs. Apart from the very first song, 'L'amitié', which is from her fifth Vogue album in French, all the songs date from the second phase of her career and end with songs from her last album released in 2000. They are set out in broadly chronological order so one can hear how her art developed from the gifted 'yé yé' teenager to the great chanteuse of later years. For those who have not heard her, she has an achingly beautiful voice - not big (but listen to 'Point')but whose timbre is unique. She writes many of her own songs and today considers this more important than her singing. She sings of love and its problems and the songs pull you in emotionally. They are not sentimental but induce an intense nostalgic feeling in the listener - loss, regret. Many are beautifully lyrical, others are bluesy or even rock-like. Once Françoise traps you, you rarely escape.The book is beautifully produced, with lots of photographs, some quite recent. The tracks are fully annotated. There is an excellent biographical note covering 1967 to 2000 but you will need to have studied French, of course, to read this. All her French albums are listed, with a thumbnail photo of each cover, and this includes all the songs in each one. I was surprised that there are 24, issued between 1962 and 2000. It does not include the albums in English, German and Italian. Lastly, there is a list of all the singles and EPs issued in French - about 70! This is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in looking further. The market is awash with compilations with a great deal of duplication, so it is better to track CD versions of the orginal albums. Happily, at the time of writing, most are available.This is a presentation of rare quality and I strongly recommend it. One warning - you will have to store it on your bookshelf."