The Shuffle: Charlotte Gainsbourg, “Paradisco”

Charlotte Gainsbourg keeps excellent company at the service of her musicianship. The daughter of legendary French avant-garde com-poseur Serge Gainsbourg and actress Jane Birkin has worked with the likes of Beck Hansen, Asa Taccone, Charlie Fink, and Conor J. O’Brien, to name a few. I’ll take a pause here while you go look those people up.

….Pretty cool, huh? The product of all these collaborations between Madam Gainsbourg and her muscial advisors is the most effortless, beautiful-sounding stuff I’ve heard in a long time. Go for gold and turn on “Paradisco” first. Hear those echoing strums at the beginning? That’s the work of Mr. Hansen. He’s been wearing his producer badge with pride these past four years. But I think what really sets the whole thing alight is spinning out a track that is decidedly beat-oriented, while placing an unmistakably French songstress right at the heart of things. I don’t know of any other line-up from the land of Bastille that achieves this dynamic.

Of course, the rest of Charlotte’s work (including her first album, produced by powerhouse duo Air) is phenomenal as well. Get to listening!