Review: Nouvelle Vague
Label: Peacefrog
Released: May 11, 2004
There are really two kinds of novelty covers. One is purely a joke. There's no love for the original or for the style into which it's been re-arranged. Richard Cheese's Lounge Against the Machine is like that. It takes 80s/90s alt rock and turns it into lounge music. I doubt Mr. Cheese loves either the originals or lounge music. It's just his schtick. He plops the alt rockers into a lounge format and it's all fun...for about 30 seconds and then it's as stale as the pretzel pieces you dig out from under the cusions of your couch. The second type of novelty cover is just as fun, but also more serious at the same time. There's a real understanding of the songs being covered and there's a serious attempt to translate those songs into a new genre. Nouvelle Vague is of this second kind. And they're very good at it.
An interesting twist to the Nouvelle Vague novelty is that their name is French, but it means "new wave" when translated into English and "bossa nova" when translated into Portuguese. As implied, the band offers us bossa nova versions of new wave hits of the 80s. The originals were done by everyone from the Dead Kennedys to Depeche Mode. From the Cure to the Clash. Modern English, Killing Joke, Joy Division, the Specials and others get bossa nova-ed as well. Nouvelle Vague doesn't nail all of them, but they certainly do a few and come very close many others.
While they struggle with Modern English's "Melt With You," it isn't horrible. It's the worst track on the album only because they just fail to fully make it their own. The Joy Division classic "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is another weak point, but it's not for lack of effort. Here they do an admirable job in what might be an impossible task. Their bossa nova new wave works well with most of the rest of the album, resulting in tracks that are listenable in their own right such as Killing Joke's "Psyche" and the Cure's "A Forest." Never having been much of an XTC fan, I honestly don't remember "Making Plans for Nigel," so it goes a long way to show the strength of Nouvelle Vague's art that it's one of my favorite tracks with the novelty part essentially stripped away for me.
The album's most amazing moments though occur on two tracks that alone make it worth your time and money. First, their cover of the Clash's "Guns of Brixton" maintains all of the incendiary nature of the original and adds a layer of pure sex. It's like an orgasmic moment of revolution. It can't repalce the original, but it certainly holds its own. The other jawdropping track is "Too Drunk to Fuck," originally recorded by the Dead Kennedys. It was a snarling, sarcastic punk rock social criticism when the DKs did it, but Nouvelle Vague turns it into something like an evening with a high-paid hooker, so sexy you'll feel dirty listening to it, but it still has a certain touch of class.
Nouvelle Vague is a novelty, but not they're so much more than just kitsch. There is some kitsch to be sure, but there's a great deal more substance based both on a complete understanding of the original versions as well the care taken in the translation across genres. The band is so good that I would expect an album of originals to eqaully as compelling.
Rating: 8/10
Released: May 11, 2004
There are really two kinds of novelty covers. One is purely a joke. There's no love for the original or for the style into which it's been re-arranged. Richard Cheese's Lounge Against the Machine is like that. It takes 80s/90s alt rock and turns it into lounge music. I doubt Mr. Cheese loves either the originals or lounge music. It's just his schtick. He plops the alt rockers into a lounge format and it's all fun...for about 30 seconds and then it's as stale as the pretzel pieces you dig out from under the cusions of your couch. The second type of novelty cover is just as fun, but also more serious at the same time. There's a real understanding of the songs being covered and there's a serious attempt to translate those songs into a new genre. Nouvelle Vague is of this second kind. And they're very good at it.
An interesting twist to the Nouvelle Vague novelty is that their name is French, but it means "new wave" when translated into English and "bossa nova" when translated into Portuguese. As implied, the band offers us bossa nova versions of new wave hits of the 80s. The originals were done by everyone from the Dead Kennedys to Depeche Mode. From the Cure to the Clash. Modern English, Killing Joke, Joy Division, the Specials and others get bossa nova-ed as well. Nouvelle Vague doesn't nail all of them, but they certainly do a few and come very close many others.
While they struggle with Modern English's "Melt With You," it isn't horrible. It's the worst track on the album only because they just fail to fully make it their own. The Joy Division classic "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is another weak point, but it's not for lack of effort. Here they do an admirable job in what might be an impossible task. Their bossa nova new wave works well with most of the rest of the album, resulting in tracks that are listenable in their own right such as Killing Joke's "Psyche" and the Cure's "A Forest." Never having been much of an XTC fan, I honestly don't remember "Making Plans for Nigel," so it goes a long way to show the strength of Nouvelle Vague's art that it's one of my favorite tracks with the novelty part essentially stripped away for me.
The album's most amazing moments though occur on two tracks that alone make it worth your time and money. First, their cover of the Clash's "Guns of Brixton" maintains all of the incendiary nature of the original and adds a layer of pure sex. It's like an orgasmic moment of revolution. It can't repalce the original, but it certainly holds its own. The other jawdropping track is "Too Drunk to Fuck," originally recorded by the Dead Kennedys. It was a snarling, sarcastic punk rock social criticism when the DKs did it, but Nouvelle Vague turns it into something like an evening with a high-paid hooker, so sexy you'll feel dirty listening to it, but it still has a certain touch of class.
Nouvelle Vague is a novelty, but not they're so much more than just kitsch. There is some kitsch to be sure, but there's a great deal more substance based both on a complete understanding of the original versions as well the care taken in the translation across genres. The band is so good that I would expect an album of originals to eqaully as compelling.
Rating: 8/10
posted by bob_vinyl at 11:18 PM
3 Comments:
Amen to that. I just made two mix CDs, and Nouvelle Vague was the only band to get on both of them. It's been awhile since a band inspired so many emotions and thoughts while I listened to them.
For what it's worth, they're apparently now signed to V2, Richard Branson's post-Virgin Records record label.
Okay, I'm listening to "In A Manner of Speaking", a song I have never heard in any way, shape, or form. I have no idea of who did it originally, so, as you mentioned, the novelty element is stripped away for me.
It is giving me chills. Beautiful, beautiful song.
Last month, around Christmas, I was having dinner with friends in a club at a resort, listening to some light bossa nova when I realized I recognized the song, and it wasn't in Portuguese but English, and ...what the h is that? I was useless at dinner because I was so obsessed with the music. I used to be a DJ, so I was recognized almost everything (apparently I need to study up on Tuxedomoon). I found out the name of the artist and was able to get both both Nouvelle Vague and Bande Apart.
I love to hear good renditions of "alternative" songs; Brad Mehldau doing "Paranoid Android" and Cyrus Chestnut's "Gold Sounds" project (all Pavement songs) make happy just existing, because it means I didn't imagine all this great music. So when Nouvelle Vague goes back even further than either of those recordings, to some real sacred cows, it makes me smile.
I stopped needing perfect long ago; this music makes me happy and that's enough.
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