Palette cleanser music post
You can get news anywhere and there is currently too much of it. I'm happy [[1]] to talk about it in another post, but here and now let me share some music with you.
These are good songs even if you don't know French and do not even wish to learn. I was certainly blasting them in the shower long before I knew what they meant
It's all kinds of stuff - electric, folk, symphonic, pop, queer - should be something here for everyone.
Robert Robert is a local electronic/dance musician that popped on to my feed when I knew very, very little French. And Souffle sur moi was basically perfect for that moment. It's by far the easiest to understand, with a good number of English lyrics and a fantastic horn section during the refrain:
J'ai plongé tête premiere
(I plunged in head first)
J'ai perdu mes repères
(I lost my bearings)
T'es ce que je préfere
(You are my favorite thing)
Pousse-moi et je vais tomber
(Push me and I'll fall)
Souffle sur moi, je vais tomber
(Breath on me and I'll fall)
La symphonie des éclairs by Zaho de Sagazan is dreamy, symphonic, and has outstanding vocals. A truly beautiful and calming song. I particularly like the use of the conditional-present in the refrain below (irais, tranverserais) - not for the language nerdery, but rather the sound produces a flow in the lyrics that works extremely well.
Il fait toujours beau au-dessus des nuages
(It's always beautiful above the clouds)
Mais mois, si j'étais un oiseau, j'irais danser sous l'orage
(But me, if I was a bird, I would go dance in the storm)
Je traverserais les nuages comme le fait la lumière
(I would traverse the clouds like light does)
J'écouterais sous la pluie la symphonie des éclaires
(I would listen to the symphony of lightning in the rain)
Angèle is short for Belgian artist Angèle Joséphine Aimée van Laeken. She might be the most famous artist on this list. She closed the Paris Olympics in 2024 with Phoenix and Kavinsky, some other favs of mine that I somehow never realized are French.
And yes, this is pop but, like much of her music, is firmly political. Patrick is a vivid description of a 50 year old reactionary with a brain poisoned by the internet. I'd usually push back on the practice of "making up a guy to get mad at" but this is like 100% of Facebook now
Il vеut avoir raison, il ne s'en fait pas, il y va à fond
He wants to be right, he doesn't care, he goes for it
Quand il quitte la maison, sa vie reprend le pas et il se sent con
When he leaves the house, his life resumes, and he feels stupid
Tout seul dans son salon, il ne s'en fait pas, il y va à fond
All alone in his living room, he doesn't care, he goes all out
Patrick perd la raison, Patrick réfléchit pas, Patrick touche le fond
Patrick loses his mind, Patrick doesn't reflect, Patrick hits rock bottom
I love this song and I love the band name. F*CKKKK by Camion Bip Bip (Truck Beep Beep) is a song that isn't ever gonna leave my playlist. They describe themselves in a way I need not translate "groupe queer de musique électronique, festive et militante"
F*ck les TERF les fachos
Fuck the TERFs, the facists
Ceux qui nous respectent pas
Those who don't respect us
On vous emmerde
We don't give a damn about you
C'est cadeau
It's a gift
Gardez la haine on garde nos droits
Keep the hate, we keep our rights
Trop lesbienne trop PD
Too lesbian, too queer
Trop insoumis tu crois quoi
Too rebellious/unbowed, what do you think?
Il faut voter
One must vote
Si tu t'sens pas concerné.e
If you don't feel concerned
Fais le pour moi
Do it for me
Frankly, there's a non-zero chance you have already heard Feel Good by Charlotte Cardin. It's largely in English, which Cardin was teased about a bit when she was interviewed for the preeminent Quebec talk show Tout le monde en parle, but the weaving in-and-out of the two languages actually closely matches how a lot of the younger generation talks in Montréal and it drives their Boomer equivalents nuts.
You make me feel good
Ta main sur ma taille
Your hand on my waist
Ensemble dans le taxi
Together in the taxi
C'est vraiment super sexy
It's really super sexy
You make me feel nice
Frissons every time
Chills every time
J'y ai pensé mille fois
I thought about a thousand times
If you want me, dis-le moi
If you want me, tell my that
When I first heard Du soleil à Pékin by Alfa Rococo, right when I started my French classes, I understood almost none of it. Even after reading the lyrics. I just through it sounded pretty good, a bit pop-yier than I like usually but something grabbed me and I put it on my regular playlist.
My slow evolution of picking up more of the language revealed the details of why and how this song is mostly about climate change and the (small) hope that maybe China will do something about it.
Qui fera le plus haut gratte-ciel
Who will make the tallest skyscraper?
Le PIB va te briser les ailes
The GDP that will clip our wings
Qui aura la plus grosse maison
Who will have the biggest house?
Le glacier qui fond à la télévision
The glacier which melts on the television
On dirait pourtant que personne n’a entendu
Yet it seems no one has heard
L’appel d’urgence pour sauver toutes nos âmes perdues
The emergency call to save all our lost souls
Est-ce qu’il faut vraiment frapper un mur pour changer
Do we really have to hit a wall to change?
Pour dévier la trajectoire du monde entier
To divert the trajectory of the entire world
Dire qu’il a suffit de ralentir le pas
To think all it took was to slow it down
Pour revoir les sommets de l’Himalaya
To see the summit of the Himalayan peaks again
Mais il y a un peu d’espoir
But there is a little hope
Dans le ciel ce matin
In the sky this morning
Par la fenêtre on peut voir
Through the window we can see
Du soleil à Pékin
The sunshine in Beijing
It's almost impossible to choose a favorite song of my favorite Quebecois band, but L'Amérique pleure has to be near the top.
Don't let the name of the band, Les Cowboys Fringants, fool you. Their work is closer to folk than country and its fairly radical politics and modern criticism follow in that tradition.
L'Amérique pleure follows the life of a truck driver taking the Florida turnpike, remarking on the beautiful scenery hiding so many inequalities and suffering on so many faces. It does not get cheerier from here - describing the excesses of their epoch, mass death, alienation, and the solitude.
It is important to note that the artist isn't singling out the United States for these problems - when Canadians say "L'Amérique" they more frequently mean the continent as a whole.
La question que j'me pose tout le temps
The question I ask myself all the time
Mais comment font tous ces gens
How do all these people
Pour croire encore en la vie
Still believe in life
Dans cette hypocrisie
In this hypocrisy
C'est si triste que des fois
It's so sad that at times
Quand je rentre à la maison
When I return to my home
Pis que j'park mon vieux camion
Then I park my old truck
J'vois toute l'Amérique qui pleure
I see all of America crying
Dans mon rétroviseur
In my rearview mirror
[[1]]: Read: miserable
