Francoise Hardy

Françoise Hardy – Personne d’autre (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 39:25 minutes | 775 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone (France)

Françoise Hardy has been absent from recording for six years. While that’s not unusual for her — she’d gone eight years between albums during her 57-year career — the circumstances surrounding that absence directly shine a light on Personne d’Autre (Nobody Else), her 24th studio album. Hardy was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer a few years before 2012’s L’Amour Fou. The process of cutting a record while going through cyclical chemo treatments was exhausting. She’d decided it was her final outing. The cancer never really went into remission during those years, and Hardy eventually became so ill, she lapsed into a coma for eight long days in 2015. But she rallied. She’d completely lost her singing voice, but she was alive and determined to fight back.

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Françoise Hardy – Message personnel (1973/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 27:53 minutes | 641 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner (France)

French chanteuse Francoise Hardy was riding high in her popularity when this set was issued in 1975, made up of tracks from 1973 and 1974 as well. The overall feeling of Message Personnel is cinematic. There are the sweeping string arrangements of the legendary Michel Bernholc on all but one track. His direction of a basic rock band backed by a lush set of strings underlined Hardy’s wispy yet compelling vocals. On the single, however, “L’Amour En Privè,” Serge Gainsbourg handled production chores with musical directors J.C. Vannier and Georges Moustaki. Electric guitars roll under a sputtering beat before giving way to a shimmering sexy cabaret song that is all joie de vivre and no drama. Moustaki’s rock & roll guitars duel the Vannier’s high-end strings, which sweep across the mix, for dominance between Gainsbourg’s verses. This is also the title track to the Gainsbourg film of the same name. The set ends with “Je Suis Moi,” a dramatic rock ballad in the most theatrical sense. Indeed, had it been written and recorded five years later, it would have been conceivable for Meatloaf and Jim Steinman to record it! Message Personnel is a fine example of Hardy at the height of her powers as an interpreter, writer, and singer of songs deeply engrained in the French pop culture vernacular.

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Françoise Hardy – Ma jeunesse fout le camp (Remastered 2016) (1967/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 31:20 minutes | 671 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone (France)

“Ma jeunesse fout le camp…” is a studio album by the French popular singer Françoise Hardy. Released in France in November 1967. The title is very idiomatic, but it in English its general meaning is “My youth is slipping away”. This album was the first produced by Hardy’s own production company, Asparagus Productions.

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Françoise Hardy – If You Listen (1972/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 37:19 minutes | 421 MB | Genre: Pop, Vocal, Chanson
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone (France)

Sung (except for one track) in English, this 1972 album (originally titled just Françoise Hardy) was reissued on CD by Virgin France in 2000 under the title If You Listen, and issued in some foreign territories under yet different titles in the 1970s. However it was titled, it was a good, tasteful, and subdued set of folk-rock- and singer/songwriter-influenced covers (though the one French song, “Brulure,” was the sole original Hardy composition). It’s no surprise that the mood here is dignified rainy-day sorrow. But that was Hardy’s forte, and the arrangements, emphasizing acoustic guitar and light strings, seem to indicate she was doing some listening to British folk-rock and American singer/songwriters. So does the choice of covers, including songs by Buffy Sainte-Marie, Neil Young (“Till the Morning Comes”), Beverley Martyn, and Randy Newman (“I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today”). There’s also the quite obscure “The Garden of Jane Delawnay,” a misspelled interpretation of “The Garden of Jane Delawney” by the British folk-rock band the Trees; “Let My Name Be Sorrow,” originally done by Mary Hopkin; and a couple of tunes co-written by Mick Jones, later of Foreigner. None of songs rate among her best work, but it’s still a good album, often overlooked even by Hardy fans and notable in that just one of the English songs (“Bown Bown Bown”) was also recorded by Hardy in a French version. It’s also much superior to her album of English cover versions of just three years before, Françoise Hardy en Anglais, which was over-produced and far heavier on the syrup.

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Françoise Hardy – Entracte (Remastered 2016) (1974/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 27:25 minutes | 541 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner (France)

Oozing beauty and cool since the mid ‘60s, Parisian singer, actress and all-round icon Francoise Hardy is somewhat of a cult figure in this country whilst being hugely popular in France. Entr’acte is her 19th album and was originally released in 1974. This gem of a record often gets overlooked in among her huge body of work but its pleasing folk rock stylings and Hardy’s understated, breathy delivery make it well worthwhile.

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Françoise Hardy – En anglais (Remastered 2016) (1968/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 30:37 minutes | 684 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone (France)

“En anglais” is a studio album of the French popular singer Françoise Hardy. Original album released in United Kingdom in October 1968. The album features English covers of Rock, Folk, and Pop tunes on this rather heavily orchestrated album, which may be Hardy’s most original ’60s recording.

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Françoise Hardy – Comment Te Dire Adieu (1968/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 31:03 minutes | 715 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone (France)

This may not rate as highly as her best mid-’60s recordings, which are less MOR-oriented. That stated, it’s about as good as late-’60s MOR Continental pop gets, with tastefully imaginative orchestration, strong melodies, and sexy vocals. It’s perhaps even sadder and more sentimental than was the norm for Francoise–she perpetually seems to be singing as though she’s gazing out of a deserted chateau on a rainy afternoon. She largely forsakes original material here (although a couple cuts bear her writing credit), and offers fine, haunting French interpretations of Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne,” and Phil Ochs’ “There But for Fortune,” and Ricky Nelson’s “Lonesome Town.”

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