Search - Serge Gainsbourg :: You're Under Arrest

Gainsbourg's last album

Robert Storm | Finland | 05/27/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Some people call You're Under Arrest the first French rap album. However it's mostly the title track that has influenced French rap. The other songs aren't much more hip hop than such classic spoken word songs as "Initials B.B." and "L'homme à tête de chou". There's even songs with melodies on this album, such as the anti-drug "Aux enfants de la chance". When I heard the title track for the first time, it sounded really stupid: "You're under arrest cause you're the best, slip-it-a-slam b-boom-bang Gainsbourg". Later it started to sound really funny. In many songs the idea is the same as on the previous album Love on the Beat: Gainsbourg murmurs the verse and the background singers sing some slogan as a kind of chorus. Sounds like a boring idea but works very well. Sometimes the slogan in the chorus means a different thing in French and English: "Baille baille Samantha" sounds like "Bye bye Samantha" and "Shotgun" sounds like "Chacun". There are two cover versions on the album. I've heard more gloomy versions of "Gloomy Sunday" but of the Piaf classic "Mon legionnaire" is one of the best cover versions I've heard. It sounds almost apocalyptical, and the sax is great. You're Under Arrest is an excellent album, and it's admirable that a man who was almost 60 years old experimented with a newish genre of music like rap. Gainsbourg lived for four years after this album but during those years he wrote songs for other artists only. You're Under Arrest is a strong ending for his amazing career."