1968

by Stewart MasonDefinitely the weirdest record of France Gall's career, 1968 (released in 1967, of course, much as Beatles '65 came out in 1964) shows the influence of British psychedelia as it came across the English Channel. Like Merseybeat and other musical forms before it, though, psychedelia was twisted by French musicians into something idiosyncratically Gallic. Even though echoes of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper (and others) are all over this, it's still identifiably French, and unmistakably France Gall. The sources of the Donovan-like boinging sitars on "Chanson Indienne" and the Kinksy music hall rush of the swinging "Avant la Bagarre" ("Before the Brawl," interestingly enough) are clear, but Gall's perky-wispy voice and the indefinably but unmistakably French sound of the arrangements and production -- one gets the sense that these are older, jazz-based musicians, not young rockers -- twists things ever so slightly. Serge Gainsbourg is less in evidence on this album than he had been on Gall's previous releases, contributing only two tracks, the mysterious "Nefertiti" and the just plain weird "Teenie Weenie Boppie." In his place, Gall's producer/songwriter father Roger Gall reasserts his presence, writing a third of the album's 12 songs. Another change is that Gall's normal producer/arranger, Alain Gorageur, is largely absent, with most of the album overseen by a new face on the French pop scene, an expatriate Englishman named David Whitaker. Whitaker's a lighter hand on the baton than Gorageur, and so there's an airiness to this album missing from some of Gall's earlier records. It suits her high-pitched voice beautifully, especially on the almost Pet Sounds-like orchestral opener "Toi Que Je Veux" and the enchanting "Bebe Requin." Thought perhaps not the best starting point for the complete France Gall novice, this is an essential album.