MUSIC REVIEW: CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG - 'STAGE WHISPER'

An Expansive Album of Hyper-Cool Gnarly Pop that Riddles, Rocks & Hooks

By: Jesse Livingston

December 15, 2011

(Because Music / Elektra) Charlotte Gainsbourg. She's an actress who, from a young age, has appeared in many French-language films, as well as Lars Von Trier's two most recent controversial offerings: Antichrist and Melancholia. She won a Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Antichrist. She's the daughter of the union between English actress Jane Birkin and French musical legend Serge Gainsbourg. She made her singing debut alongside her father when she was thirteen years old. She has released three previous albums, and her new one is an expansive two discs long called Stage Whisper.

Actresses moonlighting as musicians. Shades of nepotism. Haven't we heard this story before? You'd be forgiven for being a little skeptical. However, you'd also be pleasantly surprised, because Stage Whisper is very, very good. It's dreamy, spooky, innovative, and adventurous. Given previous work with Beck -- a man notorious for spotting talent and exploring the unexplored (who also produces the tunes here) -- if Gainsbourg's acting career should ever fall away, the transition to full-time music would be seamless, expected, encouraged.

Listening to the fifth track, “Anna,” you'd think the album was all pretty, airy pop songs in the vein of Saint Etienne. Listening to the first track, “Terrible Angels,” you'd think the album was all pounding, grinding synths in the vein of Peaches. “Paradisco” has a Depeche Mode thing happening; “All the Rain” might have been a Belle & Sebastian song left off an album for being too edgy; “White Telephone” could easily be something David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti wrote for Julee Cruise.

If this sounds schizophrenic, it may be a little bit, but only in a good way. The disparities between styles aren't jarring; somehow they all fit together in tone and theme. The best albums are always ones that take chances. This multi-textured palette of sounds and influences is not entirely surprising, given the man at the desk who tweaks the levels and encourages Gainsbourg's emotional exploration without allowing her to go entirely off the chart. Gainsbourg herself clearly has the skills and sensibility to hold the whole thing together. Her soulful voice croons over acoustic and electric guitar, pulsing and beeping synths, frantic and sedate drums, all with equal self-assurance. At one turn sensual, at another confrontational, Gainsbourg is committed to range.

It's exciting when people are genuinely gifted in multiple fields. It gives all of us aspiring neurosurgeon / rock star / racecar driver / particle physicists hope that we're not just wasting our time by pursuing several different dreams at once. Some musicians might be jealous that a critically acclaimed actress could make an album this good, but they'd be missing the point. “I might as well be anyone at all.”

Stage Whisper is a great title for this album. The songs are haunting and dreamlike, but there's a melodramatic intensity humming underneath the surface. This theatrical tendency is even more apparent in the second disc of live tracks that comes with the purchase. Just listen to the wild carnival that is “Set Yourself on Fire” and you'll understand. Gainsbourg sounds like she's a pretty captivating performer, if her lazily passionate version of Dylan's “Just Like a Woman” is any indication.

Charlotte Gainsbourg's third album, IRM, was reportedly inspired by the noises she heard while having an MRI scan after a head injury. It's that kind of cracked inspiration that makes Stage Whisper such a joy to hear. It's a journey over internal landscapes both familiar and bizarre, and it's absolutely worth taking.

Standout Tracks: “Terrible Angels,” “Paradisco,” “White Telephone,” “Anna”

For Fans Of: Saint Etienne, Peaches, Depeche Mode, Belle & Sebastian, Portishead