Françoise Hardy
L'Amour Fou

And so it was that I met Françoise Hardy, yet another gift from a trusted friend; a name I had already heard in passing, evoking a "lost world", that of the '60s easy-listening pop, which I am strongly fascinated by and an elegant, velvety voice that struck me immediately. From 1962 to 2012, from Yé-Yé princess, youthful and carefree icon of more light-hearted times to an album of class, simplicity, and exquisite taste that is truly rare: "L'Amour Fou", ideally celebrating Françoise Hardy's golden wedding anniversary with music. Piano and voice, this is the basic formula, despite a few digressions and embellishments: a formula that always keeps me slightly on my toes, it's now overused, abused, inflated, I've listened to piano-based albums by "young" artists that I wouldn't suggest to my worst enemy; but it's also a selective formula, almost ruthless in its simplicity, impossible to bluff, to pull the wool over people's eyes, if there is no inspiration, if there isn't substance and valid ideas, you'll be exposed without appeal, but that's not the case here, on the contrary, "L'Amour Fou" is successful through and through.

"L'Amour Fou" is slow, full of ballads, yet it flows smoothly, brief, never tiring, entertaining with melodies suspended in time, often of absolutely crystalline beauty. "Normandia" reminds me a lot of a graceful kd lang, not for the voice, not for the musicality, but precisely for the emotional impact, the soft and velvety atmospheres that rise in a slightly melancholic but irresistible swirl, full of emotion and energy, then we have a couple of vintage gems, "Mal au coeur" and "Piano-Bar", suave and refined pop-jazz that enhances the charm, the typical class of a seasoned entertainer, the warm and velvety voice of Françoise. And one dreams, flies with the imagination, through the alleys of Montmartre and green fields dotted with vineyards, chasing an ideal of style, class, and beauty, inherent in every single detail of these songs.

And then the ballads, enveloping like a silk glove, all powerful and charismatic in their extreme class and delicacy; chamber-pop suggestions, especially "L'Amour Fou", chanson with classical reminiscences and "Porquoi vous?" poignant and intense minuet; tormented moods, the foggy and lingering melancholy of "Le fous de Bassan" and "L'enfer et le paradis", the bitterness of "Soie et fourrures", the sweetest fragility of "Si vous n'avez rien à me dire...". And in the end, Françoise Hardy bids farewell with "Rendez-vous dans une autre vie", this time no piano but an acoustic guitar; it's a light farewell, almost whispered but vibrant, smiling; we'll see each other in another life, perhaps, but this is enough for me, even just these ten songs are enough to celebrate the value of a splendid singer, of a simple, sincere, beautiful album. And in the end, it always happens to me: every time I happily approach the music of artists so far from me in generational terms I am almost overwhelmed by surprise, it has happened to me many times, with figures of various styles and origins, now I know that this type of "vintage" sound is intrinsically in my strings, yet the surprise remains, fortunately, heaven forbid if it weren't so.