Most pop-artists from Serge Gainsbourg’s generation would have either retired or been playing the nostalgia circuit by the late seventies. Had they reached the point of making a reggae album it undoubtedly would have been filled to the brim with shlock and schmarm. This is not the case with Mr. Gainsbourg. Something about reggae and dub was revolutionary and spoke to him. This was not a tongue-in-cheek cash-in.

He is mainly known for his French pop music from the late fifties and throughout the sixties. He is most known for his steamy-seducer slur that at times sounds intoxicated and/or horny. On Aux Armes et caetera Serge slithers and seemingly whispers his way through the music. Yet his singing can also be direct and sinewy. The title track is a remake of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, which outraged many French citizens. This was also his biggest hit ever in his home country.

Each song is thoroughly enjoyable. Whether you understand or care to learn the language. Each song is easily recognizable due to the superb production, dub undertones and elegant background vocals by The I Threes. On Des Laids Des Laids Serge’s voice sounds like it’s on the verge of an orgasm. The Relax Baby Be Cool is bubbly and upbeat. On Daisy Temple The I Threes sound ethereal and almost non-secular.

In addition to the original 1979 album, a second disc has both Dub and DJ versions of the Serge Gainsbourg originals from the first. Overall, Aux Armes et caetera is not just some bizarre artifact, but a hidden aural classic that should bear repeated play.

Artist: Joni Mitchell
Album: The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Label: Elektra/Asylum

In 1975 Joni Mitchell was at the peak of her commercial game. Court and Spark, the album released prior to it had been a huge success. This was due to the heavy radio play of Help Me and Free Man in Paris. Also, the success was due to the new course her music had taken with the jazz and pop styling of Tom Scott and The L.A. Express. This brilliant new sound was a departure from the stripped-down confessional poet songs from her first five records. The Hissing of Summer Lawns (HOSL) was Joni diving even further into the depths of jazz and what it meant to her.

The music is explorative yet can be light, lush, swinging, vibrant and fragile sounding all at once. Her lyrics are thick and abstract, extremely colorful and heavy. A song like The Jungle Line is one that slithers intelligently through space, probing the listener’s imagination:

Rousseau walks on trumpet paths
Safaris to the heart of all that Jazz
Thru I bars and girders-thru wires and pipes
Thru the mathematic circuits of the modern nights.

At first listen her lyricism can be quite dense and difficult to comprehend. Yet after repeated listening the lyrics appear to be standing proud alongside the music. HOSL purportedly is a concept album, one about suburban life and the lack there of communication and understanding. Yet, this is no contrived work designed to convert the masses to Joni Mitchell’s thinking. It is more of a deft social commentary than anything. The weight of the words at times contradicts the reposed and often gossamer music.

This contradiction is extremely refreshing. As with Edith and The Kingpin we hear:

Some song—-some mysterious song
Bars in her head
Beating frantic and snowblind
Romantic and snowblind
She says—-his crime belongs

Yet the music swells with a calming orchestration which caresses the listener, almost luring them away from the subject matter of a cocaine dealer and his women. Throughout the album this ensues with other songs such as the title track and Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow.

Every track on this album is a gem. The music does have a dated quality to it, yet there is something magical about it, especially in her song writing skills which are sublimely poetic and still hold weight today amongst the scum and mildew prevalent on radio today.