As far as her musical, particularly singing career goes, Jane Birkin has often been disputed. First criticism going her way was that she would have never made it unless she wasn’t noticed in the iconic nude scene from the legendary Michelangelo Antonioni move “Blow Up” from 1966. But then, nobody now even mentions Gillian Hills, the other girl, brunette, from the scene (imdv doesn’t even have her picture in the archive).
The other criticism was that nobody would even register her singing if her longtime partner Serge Gainsbourg didn’t have her “moan” on the all-time hit “Je T’aime”. She was considered a sub-par singing voice, always on the verge of hitting a wrong note. But then, it couldn’t be said that Gainsbourg himself had such a great singing voice either. But then, that is where the charm and the attraction lay for both. As far As Serge goes, something also had to do with the fact that he was such a great songwriter and a poet.
It could be that for all the above reasons the new Birkin album “Le Symphonique” is credited to Birkin/Gainsbourg. But it could be also that Jane has solely done symphonic versions of some of Serge’s classic songs. And she has done them justice.
Some of these songs beg symphonic treatments, after all, “Baby Alone In Babylon” and “Jane B” were based on classical music after all. And in hands of the Japanese classical composer Noboyuki Nakajima and old Gainsbourg producer Philippe Lerishomme, they sound simply grand.
But re-arranging songs like “Requiem put un con” and “La Gadoue” is a challenge and Nakajima and Lerishomme shine, not only on those two or the more classical oriented tunes, but throughout the album.
And then there’s Jane’s singing. Disputed or non -disputed, she fits in perfectly. The producers did exactly the right thing - they didn’t try to iron out any of her vocal inconsistencies, but they did not let her to ‘charmingly’ disintegrate. She is always on the verge of falling out of tune but never does. You could say that the perfect balance was made.
A deserved tribute that is actually a joy to listen to.
