Charlotte’s new albun is available Tuesday but I bought it at Hiro Ballroom and have it and Screaming Females second album in heavy rotation chez moi.
I trust reviews when they say she was shy and uncomfortable on stage earlier this week but she wasn’t on Saturday: completely beautiful, completely commanding, she was excellent and then some with a small band but a very strong back up band she played for over an hour and when she said “I don’t want to leave you” at the end I believed her.
If her album 5:55 was pop francaise with a twist, the new one IRM is alt dance ala Beck who didn’t try to but still didn’t manage to overwhelm her. The album belonged to “oh bebe” herself and so did the concert. If the complaint is she doesn’t have much of a voice the answer is she uses what she has to devastating ends and that covered the album and threw in “Just Like A Woman” for good measure, it was one long highlight. “IRM” and “Heaven Can Wait” no more than “Time Of The Assasins”
The band were excellent by the way: particularly the keyboard player who held the band together which was very weird because it is usually the drummer who plays anchor. They went from louche to dance to rock with ease and while CG doesn’ have a voice she still does have A voice: she’s all flirt and come on ,just like when she was twelve.
Oh and her version of “Just Like A Woman” – a rarity in that it is a Dylan song I don’t much care for (I never got over Woody Allen’s dis in Annie Hall)- was definitive. It was like a rethinking, a whisper, promise, and a self portrait all at the same time. Did I mention she portrayed Heath Ledgers wife portraying Dylan… you geddit… Is that the essence of absolute cooolness?
Writing this blog has gotten me deeper into music than ever before so maybe that is why I am thoroughly enjoying the music scene in 2010. Or maybe I’m getting lucky. But any year you get to see a Gainsbourg is a good one… great show, girl, well done.