Posts about Serge Gainsbourg written by Palmer Eldritch. Historie de Melody Nelson. With lots of rarities that need to be heard. Serge Gainsbourg already had a well-established reputation for outrage when he released Histoire De Melody Nelson in 1971.

You don't need to speak a word of French to understand Histoire de Melody Nelson -- one needs only to look at the front cover (with its nearly pornographic portrait of a half-naked nymphet clutching a rag doll) or hear the lechery virtually dripping from 's sleazily seductive voice to realize that this is the record your mother always warned you about, a masterpiece of perversion and corruption. A concept record exploring the story of -- and 's lust for -- the titular teen heroine, Histoire de Melody Nelson is arguably his most coherent and perfectly realized studio album, with the lush arrangements which characterize the majority of his work often mixed here with funky rhythm lines which underscore the musky allure of the music. Perhaps best described as a dirty old bastard's attempt to make his own R&B love-man's record along the lines of a Let's Get It On (itself still two years away from release), it's by turns fascinating and repellent, hilarious and grim, but never dull -- which, in 's world, would be the ultimate (and quite possibly the only) sin.

~ Jason Ankeny.

Rapidshare Memento Mori Ring. It’s been two years since Brooklyn art-poppers Ava Luna released, their last album. And their next album won’t exactly be theirs.

Instead, Ava Luna are the latest participants in the Turntable Kitchen’s series, in which current artists cover classic albums all the way through. For their part, Ava Luna are taking on Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire De Melody Nelson, a Lolita-inspired 1971 concept album about Gainsbourg’s affair with a teenage girl. The band already covered the album in full at last year’s Northside Festival, but now we’ll get to hear the studio version. They’ve shared their take on, in which they nail both the orchestral lushness and the sticky depravity of the original. Becca Kauffman’s French pronunciation deserves a shoutout, as well. Listen to it below, via Brooklyn Vegan.

You can order Histoire De Melody Nelson. Anjunadeep Edition 235 With James Grant Tracklist The Life.