7. Serge GainsbourgL’Histoire de Melody Nelson
It’s a really important record for lots of reasons. I must have first heard this when I was 17 or 18. Most of the years I’ve listened to it, I haven’t exactly understood what it’s about, but you don’t need to because it’s laid out: this brooding, sexual, dark situation. It’s so perfect with the concept and the music so perfectly linked together – it really does express what’s intended in such a seamless way.
It introduced me to Jean-Claude Vannier who arranged the orchestration, and he’s such an amazing composer in his own right. Musique concrete symphonies with car horns, that kind of thing. I think that started to push me into more avant-garde music as well.
But yeah, the combination of rock and funk – the palette is so broad and yet it exists completely in its own perfect space. I mean what can you say – it’s just so fucking brilliant.
There are eastern influences in the strings as well, and the drums – the way they’re recorded – there’s just a perfect balance. And then the way his voice just sits square in the middle in this dark little space. I love how short it is as well at just half an hour. I love short records; get in get out. It’s not just about [Gainsbourg] as well – he sort of takes a backseat and allows all this other stuff to happen around him.
