Françoise Hardy – Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp (1979 Japanese Compilation)

Françoise Hardy – Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp 
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | FLAC & mp3 | Web scans
1979 Epic/Sony Japan 25·3P-78

This is a Japan-only compilation (not to be confused with an earlier album with the same title)  which spans Françoise Hardy’s career up until the mid 1970s.  The sound, mastering, and pressing quality are all excellent.

My last blog post originally contained a rant, now deleted, about how I will never truly understand the music and culture of Brazil in spite of half a lifetime spent trying.  So naturally I decided to follow that with a post of an artist whose language I don’t speak at all,  although I still have a dream of learning it, someday, if there’s still time.  And I know even less about chanson as a genre.  But I know I like Françoise and, like David Bowie apparently, had I been a music fan in the 60s and 70s I probably would have had her poster on the wall and pined after her longingly.   I know some people don’t go in for music where they can’t understand the lyrics.  I get that, but I also think you can get the “vibes” from music when they are strong enough and there is plenty of that here.  Françoise Hardy’s voice doesn’t just communicate, it manifests and inscribes.  There are a couple of  tunes in English here – is it my naivete, or a tendency to idealize “the other”, that leads to me being much less impressed with these?  Or is it because they are both covers of tunes I’m not especially fond of in the original (Lonesome Town and Let It Be Me)?  Your mileage may vary, as the American expression goes, and besides these “weak”points my only other gripe is that I would like more material from her 1971 album, untitled vut often called La Question.  But since that whole album is sublime, I would not volunteer for the position of choosing what material to include off of it.  All things considered, this is one of those collections that ought to delight both the newcomer and the seasoned fan of this iconic figure of French culture.  Françoise has been in poor health for some time and has publicly admitted to considering euthanasia as an option, which is tragic enough that I can overlook her questionable political leanings, separate the art from the artist and all that jazz.  People are complicated, artists especially so.

I’ve sworn off theme-oriented posts for now and the foreseeable future but this happens to be Christmas and-or Christmas eve in many parts of the world, so for those who commemorate, best wishes for the yuletide and solstice!

A1 – Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp (03:05)
A2 – Et Si Je M’en Vais Avant Toi (02:58)
A3 – Point (02:46)
A4 – Lonesome Town (02:03)
A5 – San Salvador (Musique Folklorique) (02:17)
A6 – Quand Mon Amour Va Prendre L’air (02:27)
A7 – Comment Te Dire Adieu (It Hurts To Say Goodbye) (02:27)
B1 – Si Mi Caballero (03:02)
B2 – Des Ronds Dans L’eau (02:25)
B3 – L’éclairage (02:41)
B4 – Let It Be Me (02:42)
B5 – Même Sous La Pluie (02:03)
B6 – Mon Monde N’est Pas Vrai (Never Learn To Cry) (02:42)
B7 – J’ai Coupé Le Téléphone (02:00)

Total length: 35:38

More information: https://www.discogs.com/release/2302759-Fran%C3%A7oise-Hardy-Ma-Jeunesse-Fout-Le-Camp

LINEAGE: 1979 Japanese compilation, Epic 25·3P-78; Pro-Ject RM-5SE with Audio Tecnica Signet TK7E cartridge; Speedbox power supply; Pro-Ject Tube Box S2 preamp; Audioquest Black Mamba and Pangea Premier interconnect cables; RME Babyface Pro interface ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; Click Repair with output monitored manually; further clicks and pops removed manually with Adobe Audition 3.0; dithered and resampled using iZotope RX Advanced. Converted to FLAC in either Trader’s Little Helper or dBPoweramp. Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename. Transferred by Flabbergast, Spring/Summer 2022.

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