I had one of those magical radio moments listening to KCRW this weekend when Chris Douridas played a French artist named Benjamin Biolay. He whisper/sang lyrics in French over a country-fied refrain of “Little darlin I love you” with dashes of twangy guitar.
He immediately reminded me of Serge Gainsbourg, creating this intimacy with his delivery that was completely captivating. (In fact,I was the passenger in a car and halted all conversation until I could figure out who the singer was!)
It’s from his 2004 album “Negatif“. It seems to have been an important time in his life as just a few years earlier, he joined the Franco-Italian acting dynasty by marrying Chiara Mastroianni, daughter of Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni.
I listen to so much new music but I love discovering old music I missed on the first go around just as much!
Here is the song that caught my ear: