There is cool and there is super cool and Double Françoise are super cool with their EP “Les French Chanteuses” positively revelling in ironically combining the late night sleaze of the lounge genre with all the time honoured French pop influences that a man, woman or aspiring socialite might desire.
Of course, it helps if you smoke Gauloises and are intimately familiar with that most manly of accoutrements, the cravat, but even style challenged mortals can enjoy these elegant reflections on the pop music of days gone by. Onwards therefore to the music, mes amis. “Les French Chanteuses” leads this EP off on its journey with the obviously immaculate Lisa leading your hand to your heart before “L’Automobile” embarks on its journey of larceny through the soundtrack cues of all those seventies Euro B-movies that now live again on DVD and Blu-ray.
“A Little Bit of Englishness” is so finger snapping cool that it demonstrates that irony, Gallic style, can be weapon in the right hands and I, for one, can’t think of the last time that I heard a song that referenced fish and chips. “Ladybird”, as you might by now expect, is perfect lounge music and would have been so even thirty years ago. “Je Te Suis” rounds things off and, with melodic minimalism, leaves you wanting more (after that all important cigarette, of course).
It must be great to be French. When I reflect on such matters, I recall, with pleasure, the musical drama that is (or was) La Fille, the gloriously ironic La Position du Tireur Couché and the exquisitely eclectic Marianne Dissard. With their “Les French Chanteuses” EP, Double Françoise add themselves to the list of all that is great on the other side of the Channel.