Studying Playlist

Music I Think Everyone Should Hear At Some Point In Their Life:

-The Smiths (especially "The more you ignore me" and "Some girls are bigger than others.")

-Fats Waller (especially "You're not the only oyster in the sea" and "Ain't misbehavin'.")

-Sigur Ros (who doesn't like "Hoppipolla?")

-Tété

-Cloclo (Claude François... especially "Alexandra Alexandrie" and "Belles belles belles."  But don't forget "Le téléphone pleure" and "Chaque jour c'est la meme chose.")

-Mum

-"Gibraltar" by Abd al Malik

-"Minuet Chrétien" (... because the English version sucks and the French version is possibly the greatest Christmas song ever written.  Ever.)

-Basix (especially "Simarik" and "Treat her like a lady.")

-Charlotte Gainsbourg, "The Songs that We Sing."

-Serge Gainsbourg (especially "Bonnie & Clyde," "Requiem pour un con," "Elisa," "Comic Strip," and only "Je t'aime... moi non plus" or "Lemon inceste" if you're not creeped/grossed out easily by sexually implicit french music.)

-Georges Brassens ("La Mauvaise réputation," "Les copains de bord," "Je me suis fait tout petit," and "Chanson pour l'auvergnat.")

-Jacques Brel (see also: "Quand on a que l'amour," "Ne me quitte pas," "Madeleine," "Les bonbons," "Le Plat pays," "Jef," "Le Diable, ça va" and "Les bourgeois.")

-Edith Piaf (we've all seen "Inception."  Now go listen to "Non, je ne regrette rien" and contemplate her intense uvular fricative trills.  See also, "La Vie en rose" and "L'hymne de l'amour.")

-Blur, "When the cows come home."

-"Belle" from the French musical "Notre-Dame de Paris"

-Christophe Maé

-"Adulte et Sexy" by Emmanuel Moire.  Then watch "Le Sourire" or "Ca me fait du bien" to see a good contrast.

-Any Serge Gainsbourg songs written for France Gall ("Annie," "Laisse tomber les filles," "Poupée de cire")

-Françoise Hardy

-Leonard Cohen (the early stuff, before he gets all creepy-chanty on us-- see especially "Suzanne," "The Stranger Song," "Sisters of Mercy," and "Bird on the Wire.")

-K'naan ("Fatima," "ABCs," "Dreamer," "TIA," Soobax.")

-"New Workout Plan Part 2" by Kanye West

-MC Solaar ("La Vie est Belle," "L'hemoglobine de la concubine," "RMI," "Carpe Diem," "DaVinci Claude," Bouge de La" and "La belle et le bad boy.")

-Kenan Dogulu ("Cakkidi" and "Patron")

-Tarkan ("Kuzu kuzu," "Vay anem vay" and "Hup." But mostly, just watch the music videos and see a man belly dance.  Hilarity.)

-Yelle ("Ce jeu," "A cause des garçons" and "Je veux te voir."  The last one comes with a strong warning of sexually explicit lyrics, but it's for a funny purpose...)

-Johnny Cash ("Boy named Sue," anything about drugs/prison/crimes)

-"Le Diner" by Benebar

-"Je t'emmene jusqu'au vent" by Louise Attack

-"La Tribu de Dana" by Manau

-Renan Luce

-"Les Marchands des reves," "C'est avec classe," and "Sur la tombe de mes gens" by Corneille

-"Killing a Stranger" by the Cure.  (Don't even bother reading Camus afterward.)

-"Der Computer No. 3" by France Gall (yes, it is indeed a song from the 60s by a French pop singer, sung in German, about computer dating.  It doesn't get much better than that.)