Serge Gainsbourg
Aux Armes Et Caetera

THE REVIEW

In 1979, reggae was experiencing a great moment of worldwide exposure: its prophet, Robert Nesta Marley, was at the peak of success, and no one expected that within two years he would be gone; the whole wave was in delirium for the upbeat rhythms and their reworking full of psychedelia, echoes, and reverbs.

In contrast, Serge Gainsbourg's career was going through a small moment of stall after the successes of the duets with his marvelous femme fatales and the ambitious concept albums. But Gainsbourg, besides being a dandy, a womanizer, a chain smoker, and perhaps the greatest French songwriter was also and above all the best manager of himself: so why not ride the wave and produce a reggae album?

But not like a pale follower, any loser looking for some easy money, but rather as top of the class: namely, going right to Jamaica, in the temple of island music, the Channel One studio, to work with the greatest slew of reggae-dub instrumentalists and producers, the Revolutionaries led by the monstrous Sly & Robbie, and entrusting the majority of the vocal arts to the I-Threes granted exclusively by Marley himself. This is the genesis of 'Aux armes et caetera', a cult album by one of the cult authors of the 20th century par excellence.

An excellent album that owes its fame mainly to excellent tracks where the dandy attitude gets infected by the dazed mood and the dazed mood gives way to a loose and sexy interpretation. An incredible musical backdrop: so much reggae, a lot of dub, some electro bubbles, a touch of swing, and Gainsbourg just slightly on the sidelines doing the bare minimum with his very particular voice, but damn, a minimum of impressive quality. It is he who makes the album extremely intriguing tingeing it with noir and sultry sensuality.
[should you get the chance to buy the French deluxe edition, it’s all gold, just listen to the dancehall version of Aux armes et caetera (that is, La Marseillaise) by the more than swashbuckling Big Youth!]