9. Mylène FarmerCendres De Lune
In the 80s I was as surprised as anyone else to do a stint as Britain’s most unlikely pop star, and I was shifting some serious units overseas too. It was whilst out on a Parisian promo trip that I discovered Mylene Farmer who scandalously, despite having a long and successful career in Europe, is virtually unknown to the English speaking world. With husband Laurent Boutonnat the pair produced a stream of high quality chartbusters – but the videos take things to an entirely different level. At a time when Adam Ant’s ‘Prince Charming’ was on every screen in Britain something altogether more daring was happening on the other side of the channel. Watch ‘Libertine’ here. As a songwriter it is comparatively easy to knock up a rock song – a bunch of riffs accompanied by some shouty angst – a good pop tune however is infinitely more difficult with the genres chord and structure limitations. ‘Libertine’ is a good example of how powerful and euphoric pop music can be – verily a toe tapping treat. On the other end of the spectrum ‘Chloe’ dives deep into the realms of melancholy, it’s dark and even a tad scary. In fact, for that reason I’ve never attempted to translate or understand the French lyric in case I don’t like what I find.
