Nouvelle Vague (album)

Background and production

Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux began work on the project in 2003, after Collin had the idea of covering Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" in a bossa nova style. Libaux later explained: "I met Marc Collin during the 90's, at a friend's place. Marc was the first musician I met in years who I could talk [to] about new wave music. For some reason, at the end of the 80's, punk and new wave music had turned into a sort of old-fashioned music, which nobody was talking about anymore. Meeting Marc, I could talk about The Stranglers, The Cure and The Sisters of Mercy again. We then have worked on a couple of albums he was producing ... Starting Nouvelle Vague was sounding obvious for us, as our ideas were matching, and the songs were happening well and quickly." The album was produced and recorded over a period of eight months.

Artwork

The Guardian included the album's artwork in a list of the ten "most beautiful sleeves of 2004". The newspaper wrote, "The band's covers feature sultry 1960s figures, the work of fashion designer Giles Deacon, with a self-consciously lo-fi feel." The album's art director was quoted explaining, "We were very anti-computer ... Each letter of the band's name was cut out by hand, but done so in a deliberately rigid manner, as a kind of whimsical nod to modernism."

Release

The album peaked at number 69 in the French album charts, spending a total of 39 weeks in the top 200. The album also charted in Belgian album charts, peaking at number 100 in the Walloon chart and number 96 in the Flemish chart. In 2006 it was reported that the album had sold more than 200,000 copies worldwide.

Critical reception

The album received generally positive reviews. Pitchfork's reviewer wrote, "The supposed ignorance of the singers plays well for this record's lack of irony, a big part of what makes it succeed as a well-meaning, well-executed novelty." The Telegraph wrote, "Marc Collin and Oliver Libaux and their eight guest chanteuses transform these songs with such skill and sincerity to their Latin syncopation that each becomes altogether new and lovely." The Guardian's reviewer wrote, "Only a frisky samba romp through Depeche Mode's Just Can't Get Enough flirts with kitsch. Elsewhere, familiar lyrics and arrangements are turned inside out to generate frosty menace (The Clash's Guns of Brixton), giggly coquetry (Too Drunk To Fuck by the Dead Kennedys) or haunting langour (The Cure's A Forest, teeming with birdsong)."

The more negative reviews take issue with the concept of the album itself. Allmusic's review begins: "The best compliment that can be paid to Nouvelle Vague's self-titled debut album: it isn't as arch and smirking as a collection of bossa nova versions of new wave classics by fetching French and Brazilian chanteuses would suggest." The NME gave the album a 1 out of 10 rating, writing, "the very concept of Nouvelle Vague - alternative '80s hits done in a deeply kitsch, sub-Bebel Gilberto sunset-samba style - is one that's so tired, so looooong past any imagined sell-by date that we're honestly astounded it exists." Several reviewers drew comparisons, both favourable and unfavourable, with an album of Kraftwerk covers recorded by the German musician Uwe Schmidt (also known as Señor Coconut), El Baile Alemán (2000).

In 2015, The Telegraph named the album's cover of "Just Can't Get Enough" in a list of the "50 best covers".

Track listing

Vocalists : Eloisia (tracks 1 and 2), Camille (tracks 3, 4, 6, and 8), Mélanie Pain (tracks 5 and 11), Alex (track 7), Marina Céleste (tracks 9 and 14), Silja (tracks 10 and 15), Sir Alice (tracks 12), and Daniella D’Ambrosio (track 13).