Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM

I first came across the name Gainsbourg when Charlotte’s dad Serge released “Je T’Aime . Moi Non-Plus” with Jane Birkin which was banned by the BBC for being too naughty. The music was quite pleasant but Serge was never bothered about stepping on moral toes, recording and releasing the song “Lemon Incest” with his daughter. There are several copies on Youtube if you want to investigate and it entered the French charts and number seven peaking at number two, It appeared on Serge’s album “Love on the Beat” in 1985 and Charlotte’s debut album “Charlotte Forever” in 1986.

Charlotte is the daughter of Serge and Jane Birkin and recorded the song above with her father at the age of 12 causing much consternation because of the title, although it was a play on words in French in the chorus between "Un zeste de citron" ("A twist of lemon") and "Inceste de citron" ("lemon incest").

It was fifteen years before Charlotte would release albums as an adult although, by that time she was also a successful actress, and she has been critically acclaimed for her music.

I am not sure why I bought IRM and this is one that I had placed on Discogs to sell then I picked it up to play just to make sure that it actually worked. My copy is a trifold card sleeve printed inside and out with a CD and DVD and booklet. The CD and DVD are black, not silver which is a bit disconcerting when you first see one.

I put the album on and was majorly impressed with the first song “Master’s Hands”, very percussive and almost immediately I thought I am keeping this. The album is produced by Beck Hansen who also wrote all the songs bar "Le Chat du Café des Artistes" which was co-written with Jean-Pierre Ferland, Michel Robidoux , "Greenwich Mean Time" co-written with Charlotte and "La Collectionneuse" co-written with Guillaume Apollinaire.

The sound of the album is very clear with Charlotte’s voice phrasing between singing and the spoken word almost, over percussive and acoustic rhythms supplied and devised by Mr Hansen.

This has been an album that I often play while I am working. Forty-four minutes of impressive songs, some rock, some almost folk, all of them different, impressive and listenable.

Because it is produced and written by Beck Hansen, with Charlotte superbly leading alt of the sounds are almost non-musical but just enhance the sound of the album superbly.

“Greenwich Mean Time” the one Charlotte composed with Beck sounds like it is being driven by a giant psychedelic elastic band.

Throughout the album, David Campbell’s string arrangements enhance what are already great songs.

According to Charlotte, IRM "was Beck’s view of what I had gone through, and not mine."

IRM is her third studio album and in 2012 it was awarded a diamond certification from the Independent Music Companies Association which indicated sales of at least 200,000 copies throughout Europe

“Heaven Can Wait” is a duet with Beck and the video for it was nominated as one of the best of 2009.

IRM was mostly recorded at Beck’s home studio in Los Angeles California., and the title was taken from the french Initialisation for the term for MRI Scanner.

I must apologise for the apparent jumping about on this album review, but I am just looking for things to tell you about it as the wonderful “Me And Jane Doe” is playing on my trusty compact disc player.

But I suggest that you take some time to track down this wonderful album.