francoise hardy

i was just listening to the lovely vogue years compilation the guys from saint etienne put together.  i hadn’t listened to francoise in a while since i od’d on 60s pop after the breakup of december 2005.  however, after getting a larger capacity iphone recently, i’ve been putting some of these classics i used to enjoy on the phone so i can revisit them.

there is something about hardy’s voice i can’t quite figure out.  it’s incredibly lovely but it doesn’t try to be.  it’s incredibly emotive and yet she rarely engages in vocal pyrotechnics.  there is something cool, alluring and distant about her (and my poor french only adds to the effect).  she puzzles me and yet there is always something at the core of her songs that moves me profoundly.

i first got into her thanks to isabelle huppert’s beautiful take on her “message personnel” in 8 women.  i think i probably love 8 women to death just because of huppert and hardy’s song (danielle darrieux also gets to sing one of hardy’s songs later in the film . . . “il n’y a pas d’amour heureux”).  saint etienne also reimagined her signature tune “tout le garcons et le filles” on their misadventures of saint etienne album.  i picked up the vogue years, comment te dire adieu and tant les belle choses as well as another best of over the years.  her voice was an anchor for me 2006-2007.  i must have played “voila” about 1,000,000 times.

joni mitchell wrote “songs are like tattoos” and revisiting hardy’s songs after the heartbreak she helped me through has ebbed away, i feel like i am staring at a ruin or a monument.  even though it’s only been a couple years, it feels like a lifetime.

“message personnel”

“la maison ou j’ai grandi”

“voila”

~ by Alejandro Morales on July 9, 2009.