A surprise (well, not a surprise anymore :P) entry in my halfway best songs list for this year will be something from Jane Birkin’s new album, which I discovered yesterday. It’ll likely be the first track, “Home”, which is so classic Birkin, but the other tracks are growing on me too – “Waterloo Station” has a wonderful homage to The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset” in it. I haven’t even thought about Jane Birkin really in years since I picked up a “best of” collection in Border’s after they first opened a store in York, but hearing her voice again makes me want to listen to her more. So sexy, and so … French! Even though she’s thoroughly British, at least she was the last time I heard her speak on “The Frank Skinner Show”, even when she’s not singing French, she’s somehow so French to me, lol. I guess it’s ‘cos her voice is so synonymous with the stuff she did with Serge Gainsbourg, and Gainsbourg being so, so, so French, it’s to be expected. There’s also a kind of “broken englishness” to the way she sings, I think, reminds me of the first songs Vanessa Paradis sang in English (I think there’s even a note in the back of the M&J liner notes that says something like, “it’s broken English but we like it,” lol, so cute). I love this album, though, and recommend “Home” heartily … you’ll be into it within bars, I promise. I hope she tours and comes near me, that would be a cool show to go to.

Apologies if this “review” sucks … I toyed with the idea of just incorporating it into a regular blog entry but I really wanna keep up the music reviews as best I can, and I’ve gotta get back on the horse some time.

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