Something about the melody sounded naggingly familiar as I also noticed that the words were not Portuguese but English. Listening closer, I heard the line, “Love will tear us apart again”, which I knew technically to be the 1980 tune of the same name by Joy Division. I say technically, because the realization did not really compute. Glanced over at the friend, who had a big grin, as if to say, ‘yes, you heard right’. At this point, my attention was all there as the cd segued into the next track, an upbeat, almost samba like ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’, originally by Depeche Mode.

The phrase, ‘nouvelle vague’ is French for ‘new wave’ and the cd of the same name conceptually is the brainchild of two French musician/producers, Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux. Marc Collin has been a musician in various bands before expanding into doing film soundtracks (‘Les Kidnappers’ –1998) and music for tv commercials. Olivier Libaux, a sometime producer, is the guitarist on the cd. He originally met Marc in 1998 and shortly after, was asked to play guitar on his film soundtrack. Marc first conceived the idea to take these 80’s tunes and set them to new arrangements in 2004 and called Olivier to collaborate with him on the project. Both musicians had been involved in the club culture scene in the 80s so these specific songs they chose to cover meant a lot personally to both of them.

Beside the first two tracks, there are great covers of ‘In a Manner of Speaking’ (Tuxedo Moon), ‘This is not a Love Song’ (P.I.L.), ‘Marian’ (Sisters of Mercy), ‘Making Plans for Nigel’ (XTC), ‘Teenage Kicks’ (The Undertones) and the dark, ‘Pssyche’, by Killing Joke. There are a few standouts – The Clash’s ‘Guns of Brixton’ done almost as a cabaret style piece with a touch of Leonard Cohen, Modern English’s classic hit, ‘I Melt with You’, the Jobim-like, ‘A Forest’, by The Cure, The Special’s, ‘Friday Night, Saturday Morning’ and the title track of the cd, Josef K’s, ‘Sorry for Laughing’, that comes off with a touch of poignance not heard in the original. There is one other track in a class of its own – a cover of The Dead Kennedys’, ‘Too Drunk to Fuck’. It’s a good one to include, just for laughs, but it’s more a novelty tune – good to play for friends as a one-off but not one that you really feel like listening to on a regular basis and one that sort of interrupts the flow with its silliness.

There is a long history in the music industry of song covers by unlikely artists crossing genres – back to The Beatles on their first album where their sound transited from club & pre-garage band to clean pop when they covered, ‘Til There was You’, from the Broadway musical, ‘The Music Man’ and later, The Sex Pistols’ snarling rendition of the Sinatra classic, ‘My Way’. Currently, the extraordinary and prolific 50s/60s songwriter, Paul Anka has a cd out where he covers some 80s rock hits by Nirvana (Smells Like Teen Spirt) and Soundgarden (Blackhole Sun) among others.

Nouvelle Vague’s cd is very good – the idea may sound gimmicky but the arrangements are really well thought out and, as a result, it functions as a cd that you can play more than a couple of times. The fact that Collin and Libaux use vocalists unfamiliar with the songs works in their favor – the tracks have a freshness to them and in some places, almost an innocence.

Marc Goldin currently lives in Chicago, with three cats, each one more long-haired than the last. Interests have ranged from medieval monasticism to discontinued stations on the London Underground – literary likes too diverse (some would say schizo) to list here although the last several years have been witness to an intimacy with Scottish and Irish literature. American Southern and Beat era lit also account for some of the ‘missing years’. Music tastes run the gamut from Cuban Danzon to Ska (all three waves but having a specific attachment to the second, two-tone period) to the Tuvan throat singers. Has written book reviews for a now defunct Irish literature site and has several short stories in various stages of development. Mad for black and white photography and aspires to someday have a complete collection of photos documenting every close in Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Works in the IT dept. of a French company in the current political climate. In football, supports Chelsea, Hibs, and for the sake of employment security, Marseille. To read Marc's short story, 'Plastic Paddy' on the Showcase section of this site, click here

© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.