The impetus behind Nouvelle Vague was two French musician/producers, Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux, bringing in various female vocalists who had no knowledge of the songs they'd be covering. Then, hoping to "forget the initial punk or new wave background of each song," they tackled 1980s faves from the likes of the Cure, the Clash, and Joy Division.
The supposed ignorance of the singers plays well for this record's lack of irony, a big part of what makes it succeed as a well-meaning, well-executed novelty. Nouvelle Vague put their most sacrilegious foot forward, opening the album with a cover of "Love Will Tear Us Apart". With the sounds of the tide heard behind the strums of a nylon-string guitar and vocalist Eloise adding playful, bouncy accents to Ian Curtis' weighty lyric, this is frothy, effervescent pop with a touristy feel but no trace of the original's weight.
And that's pretty much the MO for the rest of the record, too: The vocalist on "Guns of Brixton" sounds like she's never been near a gun, nor to Brixton, and the singer of the playful romp taken through "Too Drunk to Fuck" sounds as if she learned the operative word the day of recording, her voice veering from coquettish to near-hysterical.
However, the most effective songs re-interpret the originals while maintaining their mood. The Specials' "Friday Night Saturday Morning" starts out with "Space Oddity" acoustic panache and turns the partying ennui of the original into palpable melancholy, making it the stunning highlight of this disc. Tracks like "Marian" and "A Forest" retain bits of their original foreboding and hold up better to repeated listening, as does as the smiling rumble-pop of "Just Can't Get Enough". Nouvelle Vague certainly treat genre with the same casual respect as their source material-- they're unafraid to add French pop, cocktail jazz, or trip-hop overtones to their bossa nova template.
But if Nouvelle Vague intended these versions to be enjoyed without context, doesn't the choice of songs limit their audience? I'm sure there's a small crossover, but there can't be many fans of French bossa nova could possibly be clamoring for covers of Tuxedomoon or Killing Joke.
