"Vauxhall And Us", a French tribute to Morrissey - out on May 26, 2014

à l'écoute proudly presents:

Vauxhall And Us, a French tribute to Morrissey

OUT ON MAY 26, 2014

To celebrate its 5th birthday, music webmagazine à l'écoute has gathered 13 French bands around Morrissey’s cult 90's album, Vauxhall & I, which also celebrates its twentieth birthday this year.

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à l’écoute believes that the French Touch of pop music deserves to be celebrated and this album is a dream opportunity to highlight the diversity and energy of French bands who can proudly measure up to their British and Scandinavian counterparts.

With Vauxhall & Us, a French tribute to Morrissey, à l’écoute wants to put forward the bands it enjoys and supports: Yules, Fax, Reza, Swann, Wolves and moon, A*Song, Agop, Roken is dodelijk, Garciaphone, Le Grand Fusil, Uniform Motion, Erevan Tusk, 49 Swimming Pools.

13 titles covered by 13 bands, all free to listen and download for all our fans and Morrissey’s fans.

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To listen to the tribute, please go to :
http://vauxhallandus.alecoute.net/

 

[Anonymous]

I like most of what I hear!
I remember when I read the "You can hear that album all over the Bends" quote by Thom Yorke talking about Vauxhall & I that I couldn't quite see it,
but the version of Lifeguard sleeping, girl drowning here on this tribute album sounds really close to something that Radiohead would make in the mid 90's, so that was quite a cool listen!
I like the Why don't you find out for yourself cover as well.

I have a feeling that the band doing LSGD would also manage to sound like Radiohead if they ever covered Friday by Rebecca Black.

 

[Anonymous]

"Life is pointless and this collection of songs fails to prove otherwise" - Anonymous Morrissey Fan

Okay, the sounds of "do" and "to" on Springheeled Jim sound like a French person but I kind of like how they sound. Some of the other songs remind me of 1960's pop. No one tries to copy Morrissey and that helps. They treat the songs kind of like they stumbled upon a songbook that just happens to be Morrissey songs. The personality of each band definitely comes out.

 

[marred]

I agree, it's gibberish. And hardly main news worthy.

Waldo.

If the benchmark for news on this site is Miley "White Trash" Cyrus singing "There is a light..." into her phone then this nonsense definitely gets a seat at the table.

 

[marred]

I see how ya're.

I just don't feel anything hearing other people voice his lyrics. I can't help it. They all sound like they are busking on the sidewalk to me.

 

[King Leer]

Why are they singing in English? (that's a rhetorical question).
More the problem is the vocals are almost uniformly detached/dispassionate/dare I say…ironic hipster.
The More You Ignore cover in particular should be put out of its misery.

Edit: I love the cover, though!

 

[hand in glove]

Je ne suis pas intéressé

 

[celibate]

 

[BrummieBoy]

Bof!

Some very beautiful instrumental landscapes and vocal variations which only go to highlight the incredible strength of this set of songs. Some of the vocal stylings really bring out the thorough oddness of Morrissey's lyrics and 'persona' in this period.

Most singers find it's quite difficult to approach his vocal melodies and lyrics without karaoke pastiche or inappropriate facsimile hero-worship. Here, the entire appartus of "Morrissey" is effortlessly debunked without cover-band rancour or idolatry. A really fascinating re-imagining of the text and we shall be playing it alongside Cosmic Boxer in the build up to the new album release. As Damo would say, "sure, it's all good".

Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin, Francoise Hardy, Sebastien Tellier, Bertrant Burgalat: the possibilities for re-imagining the Morrissey canon through post-war French pop culture are endless. As the new album was birthed in Provence, a mash-up/remix project by Daft Punk types would be *interesting*. I'm thinking "Istanbul: The Marseille Mediterranean Mix" by Bertrand Burgalat to bring out the inner funk bass grooves to give that single a viral push, I'll make the calls today, perhaps doing the Pharrell subliminal riff in product placement stuff. Oh, WAIT! I don't have too, because Harvest Records have a totally realised action plan for this album as their Social Media campaign showed...... Actually Moby did all that pre-release album tracks as ad snippets stuff yonks ago. He's a vegan. We like Moby. He was going to produce Morrissey at one stage but.......it was vetoed with a fatwa for a rather obvious reason.

Anyone who thinks Morrissey isn't totally immersed in current as well as historic french pop culture is clearly stupid. I guess it will have to wait until Morrissey announces his love for Bertrand Burgalat or some other 'hipster' that the cool kids have been listening to ever since Air-French Band first rose from the English channel to mock the narrow ambitions of exhausted post-punk Brit Pop England. I guess that won't happen until BB [Bertrand, not me!] is safely dead and his extraordinary art is deemed safe to name-check publicly.

Still, Morrissey didn't really 'get' Mamma Roma, and never gained admittance to the inner sanctum there or in The City of Light because: BrummiBoys Fatwa from Finsbury Park. So he pissed off back to L.A and anodyne Swiss cantons where he feels safe. Failed in Paris, write "Christian Dior", then try Stockholm, etc. Sad, really, but that's life for us International Playboys: either you've got it or you haven't. And no, you don't need to be famous or a millionaire to live the dream, though the latter clearly helps. It's not the cash-bling that matters, it's who you know. And whether you try to be the big "I Am" with no reason or justification whatsoever. Ask Joey Barton about throwing your arrogant English Celebrity heavy-weight bullshit around in French culture and how that works out...I hear he's mt8s with Morrissey? *rollseyes* and LOLOLOLOL!'s

Bof!
BB

 

[Mr Delaney]

Others will disagree. But I thought the whole thing was rubbish.

Well, some songs were more hilarious than others. But I quite liked the first "Now My Heart Is Full", shades of 70s French pop ("Dimanche à Orly", "Dans la Brume du Matin" etc.) and actually quite well sung. And plus points for the "Spring-Heeled Jim" bunch for getting all the samples present and correct.

And obviously the project was a well-intended labour of love.

 

[Anonymous]

If the benchmark for news on this site is Miley "White Trash" Cyrus singing "There is a light..." into her phone then this nonsense definitely gets a seat at the table.

Fair point, I'd wiped that from my mind. In comparison to that this covers album reveal is earth shattering.

Waldo.

 

[DGSE]

Emmenez-moi ce soir
Là où il ya de la musique et il ya des gens
Qui sont jeunes et vivant
Au volant de votre voiture
Je ne veux plus jamais jamais rentrer à la maison
Parce que je n'en ai pas
plus

Emmenez-moi ce soir
Parce que je veux voir des gens
Et je veux voir les lumières
Au volant de votre voiture
Oh s'il vous plaît , ne me laissez pas à la maison
Parce que ce n'est pas ma maison, c'est leur maison
Et je ne m'amuse plus

Et si un bus à double-étage
S'écrase sur nous
Mourir à vos côtés
Est de telle manière céleste de mourir
Et si un camion de dix tonnes
Nous tue tous les deux
Mourir à vos côtés
Eh bien, le plaisir , le privilège est le mien

Emmenez-moi ce soir
Prenez -moi n'importe où , je ne m'inquiète pas ..
Et dans le passage souterrain sombre
J'ai pensé : « Oh mon Dieu, ma chance est enfin venu !
Mais alors une étrange peur me saisit
Et je ne pouvais pas demander

Emmenez-moi ce soir
Oh me prendre n'importe où, je ne m'inquiète pas ..
Au volant de votre voiture
Je ne veux plus jamais jamais rentrer à la maison
Parce que je n'en ai pas
Oh, je n'en ai pas

Et si un bus à double-étage
S'écrase sur nous
Mourir à vos côtés
Est de telle manière céleste de mourir
Et si un camion de dix tonnes
Nous tue tous les deux
Mourir à vos côtés
Eh bien, le plaisir , le privilège est le mien

Il ya une lumière qui ne s'éteint jamais

Ne me remerciez pas google est votre ami aussi
Arnold ou Arnaud c'est vous qui voyez , mvoyez, mkaay?

 

[Anonymous]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_fries

 

[Anonymous]

Emmenez-moi ce soir

Charmant! And I didn't know the passé simple was still alive ;-)

But I think "vos côtés" should be singular -- surely Mozzer wasn't envisaging a threesome?

 

[Anonymous]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_fries

"French" fries aren't from France, just as freedom isn't made in the USA, so in that respect you're right - you can put anything in front of "fries", doesn't matter.