ordinary pop songs and why they're great.

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

 
On a French tip tonight. And here comes the pick of my little sub-collection of cross-channel singles.

Joe le Taxi by Vanessa Paradis
This is the first entry in ages that actually fits the bill. That is based on my assumption that it's one of those songs in the novelty or, at least, not taken seriously category in most peoples' perception. But then I'm given to generalisation so could be wrong. Let's just say I'm assuming that most people would be chortling into their beer if I said that this song is definitely in my personal top 10. Yeah? And? etc etc.

Once again I'm sold on arrangement and production here in a big way. But the thing with this song is the phrasing. It's brilliant!! All the emphasis is saved for the ends of the lines "... parTOUT", "son saxo JAUNE" and so on. Whatever else he may or may not have been up to, Vanessa's uncle Franck got a fantastic bit of singing out of her.

Added to that, any song that namechecks Yma Sumac is simply beyond reproach in my book.