Charlotte Gainsbourg
Rest

Yes, fine, you are a great actress, probably the greatest actress recognized as such at this particular moment in your country, France, and one of the best and most famous internationally. It just so happens that at the same time you are also the daughter of an influential songwriter like Serge Gainsbourg and the English actress and singer Jane Birkin. So everyone expects you to be as good at acting as you are at writing songs. In this case, I wouldn't talk so much about fate or predestination; after all, everyone follows their own aptitudes. However, considering that Charlotte Gainsbourg must have always had a significant musical education, how could it be otherwise... in her case, it has been inevitable to accompany her highly successful film career with periodic ventures into the music world.

Her fifth studio LP is titled 'Rest' and was released on Because Music last November 17. Charlotte wrote all the lyrics for the record, while for production and music she enlisted exceptional collaborators, starting with the producer and musician SebastiAn as well as big names like one of the two halves of Daft Punk, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo; one of the many stars in the international indie scene, the singer-songwriter Cannon Mockasin, and even Sir Paul McCartney.

The result is a different work that, while still revisiting sounds already proposed in the past (her collaborations with Jarvis Cocker, Air, Beck, a significant producer like Nigel Godrich are notable...) in terms of depth and overall quality is superior to all the other records published so far by Charlotte. And more than a sort of whim or a simple divertissement, it feels like the musical proof of an artist who, at the height of her artistic maturity, has now reached perfect self-awareness and understanding of her capabilities. It is no coincidence that for the first time (in previous LPs, she sang in English, a language she clearly masters to perfection) she decided to write and sing in French, as if wanting to free herself from any mask and any inhibition and show herself for who she truly is.

The album opens with 'Ring-a-Ring O'Roses', a track characterized by robust electronic music arrangements and composed on a base of vibrant and swirling synths, created in collaboration with SebastiAn. His contribution to the arrangements is central and overall decisive in the album, and in songs like 'Lying With You', the pop ballad with jazz nuances 'Kate', the more than convincing synth-pop of 'Deadly Valentine' and 'I'm A Lie', and the funk groove of 'Sylvia Says' whose lyrics are freely inspired by the American poet Sylvia Plath.

The collaborations with Connan Mockasin are convincing, whom I consider a very capable and interesting author for his eccentric taste in arrangements, and who here contributes to the composition of the music for 'Dans Von Airs', 'Crocodiles', and 'Lex Oxalis', which concludes with a sort of ghost track that plunges us into a lysergic and visionary dimension and a sensible explosion of joy that reminded me of one of the most intense moments in Brian Jonestown Massacre's discography, 'Felt Tipped-Pen Pictures of Ufo's'.

'Rest', the track written together with Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, is clearly influenced by typically low-intensity Daft Punk nuances in a context that I would define as three-dimensional. But the real surprise is probably 'Songbird In A Cage', where you can clearly hear the touch of the best Paul McCartney, who here also plays guitar, piano, and drums. An elegant song characterized by a certain beat and a vintage style with a typically 'Macca' piano outro where our hero shows that when not engaged in absolutely vacuous solo productions, he can still be number one.

Above all, clearly, the lyrics and interpretation of Charlotte Gainsbourg, a sophisticated songwriter clearly highlighted to the fullest by arrangements that evoke a certain electronic music style of Giorgio Moroder, demonstrating here that she is not just the daughter of someone but a complete artist capable of excelling in music as much as in front of a screen.