Absolut Killer ! Dig this for your turntable
Serge Gainsbourg - “L’Hôtel Particulier”
Histoire de Melody Nelson is Gainsbourg’s 1971 concept album, with “concept” in this case actually meaning “unadulterated awesomeness”. The “Dirty Mouth of French Pop” spends 29 minutes sing-speaking to his muse, the trifle-younger “Melody” (portrayed by Gainsbourg’s frequent - ahem - collaborator, Jane Birkin on the album’s legendary cover) on top of haunting strings, funky bass, hi-hat, snare combos and altogether mind-blowing arrangements. It’s not easy to refer to an album as “perfect”, but given this album’s aural and thematic continuity, its length, and the sexual interplay between electric and orchestral instruments, not many albums have stood the test of time to come so close.
