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2LP
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BEC 5612597
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2023 repress as double heavy weight black vinyl, with original artwork and gatefold sleeve. Originally released in 2006. Even though 5:55 isn't technically Charlotte Gainsbourg's first solo album (that would be Charlotte for Ever, which was released [in 1986] when she was 15), it is her first solo album as an adult and, with the help of a dream team of collaborators, it's a fittingly sophisticated set that touches on her father Serge's brilliantly louche, literate pop without being overshadowed by it. Air's Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin (who paid tribute to Serge Gainsbourg particularly well on 10,000 Hz Legend's Wonder Milky Bitch) wrote 5:55's delicate music, while Jarvis Cocker and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon penned its lyrics. This mingling of French and English influences is mirrored in Charlotte Gainsbourg's subtly expressive voice and accent, which provides the perfect complement to the album's lush sounds and vivid imagery.
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2LP+CD
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BEC 5161976
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2020 repress. Double vinyl reissue, with gatefold sleeve (CD included). Originally released in 2006. "Even though 5:55 isn't technically Charlotte Gainsbourg's first solo album (that would be Charlotte for Ever, which was released [in 1986] when she was 13), it is her first solo album as an adult and, with the help of a dream team of collaborators, it's a fittingly sophisticated set that touches on her father Serge's brilliantly louche, literate pop without being overshadowed by it. Air's Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin (who paid tribute to Serge Gainsbourg particularly well on 10,000 Hz Legend's 'Wonder Milky Bitch') wrote 5:55's delicate music, while Jarvis Cocker and The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon penned its lyrics. This mingling of French and English influences is mirrored in Gainsbourg's subtly expressive voice and accent, which provides the perfect complement to the album's lush sounds and vivid imagery. On 'AF607105' -- the most Air-like song here -- she's a stewardess recounting the most glamorous plane crash ever; she performs an autopsy on a relationship on 'The Operation,' finally stating that 'the heart was rejected by the host.' As good as the atmospheric heartache of the first half of 5:55 is, it's on the second half, when Gainsbourg and her crew stretch out a bit, that the album really gets interesting. 'Jamais,' a slightly tough, witty cautionary tale about literally acting like you're in love, is a standout, while the sexy, obsessive 'Beauty Mark' and 'Everything I Cannot See' would make her father proud." --AllMusic
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2LP+CD
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BEC 5161977
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2020 repress; double vinyl reissue, with gatefold sleeve (CD included). Originally released in 2009. "Where her previous album was ethereal and ephemeral, IRM is exciting and eclectic. Beck and Gainsbourg bring out the best in each other: His songwriting and production are so sympathetic and wide-ranging that he's like a director guiding Gainsbourg to inspired performances. Meanwhile, she brings an emotionality and presence to Beck's flights of fancy that make them more grounded than they would have been as his own songs. IRM still offers plenty of beautiful French atmosphere, but it's more mussed than on 5:55: The way the strings turn from romantic to a little sinister on the slinky 'Le Chat du Café des Artistes' is decidedly jolie laide, while 'La Collectioneuse' is as eerie as it is lovely. However, the album delivers much more than looser versions of where Gainsbourg has been before. IRM's title track is a hallucinatory meditation... Elsewhere, she dives into deceptively simple folky pop with 'Me and Jane Doe' while 'Trick Pony''s breathy sexuality and strutting beats feel like Beck repaying the favor of sampling Serge Gainsbourg's 'Melody Nelson' on Sea Change's 'Paper Tiger.' The pair gets more daring as IRM unfolds, with Beck casting Gainsbourg as a world-weary siren on 'Dandelion''s bluesy shuffle, and a sneering rebel on the brittle 'Greenwich Mean Time,' which makes more noise than all of the songs on 5:55 put together... 'Heaven Can Wait''s joyful stomp is self-explanatory, but when she sings 'you could learn to crawl where you used to walk' on 'Vanities,' or 'It doesn't take a miracle to raise a heart from the dead' on 'Time of the Assassins,' it adds even more depth. Playful, heartfelt, and unexpected." --AllMusic
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