Every week, itunes offers two free songs to download. One is in English. The other is in French. My knowledge of Canada's second language doesn't extend much past the ninth grade, and is marginal at best. I've been told that my accent is laughable. However, I chose to acquire this week's French song for the same reason that I collect other obscure music: curiousity. Worst case scenerio? It ends up in my electronic trash bin and is deleted from my hard drive whenever the bin is emptied.
"Mercure Au Chrome Et P'tits Pansements" translates to (according to the first online translator I found): "mercury in the chrome and small bandages." Does that make any sense to me? No. But as I learned, you don't need to understand the mother tongue, or much else for that matter, to appreciate art. Yes, Ingrid St. Pierre turns francophone music into an art form.
Her voice has a strange radio-pop familiarity to it, but luckily stays away from the overplayed pop song number 657 territory with the instrumental side of the song. There is the strum of the guitar that is more indie than pop, a few keys of the piano working together harmoniously, and an occasional pluck of the strings of the harp. Even for those of us with no knowledge of French other than a horrible mispronounced "bonjour," understanding the language is unnessecary. Even if it would be nice to know what Ingrid is singing about. She is a higher-register Fiona Apple that is more pop than jazz, allowing anglophones to get lost in the lyrics...in a good way.
Mercure au chrome as in the antiseptic: Mercurochrome and small bandages.
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