Introducing our May Playlist - Viva La France!

For our May playlist, I was inspired by my first ever trip to France.

I was first turned on to 60s French yé-yé music by an impulsive album purchase from a record store. Back in the days when people still bought physical media on the regular, some guy had unloaded his impressive CD collection at the local record shop in order to fund his college tuition (it was a really big collection). My then-boyfriend and I went and bought dozens of albums from this guy’s drop, including Chrominance Decoder by April March. I’m pretty sure we chose the album on the basis of cover image, but it ended up being an instant hit with us. Chrominance Decoder mixes covers of classic French tunes by the likes of Françoise Hardy et al with her own compositions. The songs are sung in both English and French and are arranged with electronic flourishes by producer Bertrand Burgalat. I liked this album so much, that in addition to collecting other April March albums, I was also turned onto to the original 60s chanteuses and chanteurs, besides the aforementioned Françoise Hardy, there’s Serge Gainsbourg, Jacqueline Taïeb and Clothilde.

I included several of my favorites on this playlist, so I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. When I listen to these songs, I like to imagine I’m wearing a striped Breton shirt and heavy eyeliner while motoring around on a scooter in the streets of Paris. (This did not happen during my visit btw – the streets of Paris were far too terrifying for me to voluntarily scoot on them.)

Enjoy the playlist and tell me in the comments what you think!

xo Kaelen

P.S. Comment below on what you want to hear next month!