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01. Niagara "Quand la ville dort"
02. Art Mengo "Les parfums de sa vie"
03. Jakie Quartz "Juste une mise au point"
04. Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine "Lorelei sebasto cha"
05. Elli Medeiros "Toi mon toit"
06. Rose Laurens "Mamy Yoko"
07. Desireless "John"
08. Alain Souchon "Dandy"
09. Arnold Turboust & Zabou "Adelaïde"
10. Bernard Lavilliers "On the road again"
11. Jil Caplan "Oh tous les soirs"
12. Maxime Le Forestier "Né quelque part"
13. Raft "Yaka dansé"
14. Gold "Ville de lumière"

Thanks for listening Disparate.net podcast.

TOP 77 MUSICIANS FROM FRANCE

(All lists in www.selcukschoices.blogspot.com - Tüm listeler için www.selcukschoices.blogspot.com)

1. Claude Debussy
2. Erik Satie
3. Georges Bizet
4. Gabriel Faure
5. Hector Berlioz
6. Maurice Ravel
7. Guillaume de Machaut
8. Camille Saint-saens
9. Rameau J.P.
10. Guillaume Dufay
11. Jean-Baptiste Lully
12. Marin Marais
13. francois couperin
14. Jules Massenet
15. Marc-Antoine Charpentier
16. Serge Gainsbourg
17. Leo Delibes
18. Georges Brassens
19. Yann Tiersen
20. Nicolas Gombert
21. Olivier Messiaen
22. Daft Punk
23. Jacques Offenbach
24. Air
25. Pierre de la Rue
26. Edgard Varese
27. Joseph Bodin de Boismortier
28. Edith Piaf
29. Leo Ferre
30. Boris Vian
31. Charles Gounod
32. Bernart de Ventadorn
33. Maurice Jarre
34. Francoise Hardy
35. Jean Michel Jarre
36. Francis Poulenc
37. Louis Couperin
38. France Gall
39. Claude de Sermisy
40. Maurice Durufle
41. Santa Esmeralda
42. Boby Lapointe
43. Charles Trenet
44. Charles Mouton
45. Antoine Forqueray
46. M83
47. Pierre Boulez
48. Georges Delerue
49. Barbara
50. Adolphe Adam
51. Perotin
52. Alain Bashung
53. Noir Desir
54. Renaud
55. Serge Reggiani
56. Alain Souchon
57. Jacques Dutronc
58. Mano Negra
59. Magma
60. Charles-Valentin Alkan
61. Louis-Nicolas Clerambault
62. Alexandre Desplat
63. Jean-Luc Ponty
64. Gotan Project
65. Paris Combo
66. Justice
67. Darius Milhaud
68. Michel Polnareff
69. Kid Loco
70. Michel Petrucciani
71. Henri Salvador
72. Emilie Simon
73. Brigitte Bardot
74. Maxime Le Forestier
75. Gilbert Becaud
76. Brigitte Fontaine
77. Claude Nougaro

Comment about missed names which should be in list and not deserving ones.

I think it's no secret that I love France, that I would kill to live in Paris, that I adore the French language (although unfortunately I don't speak it too fluent because I'm too lazy) - and that I have a - for me - quite untypical crush on so many French artists. I wouldn't call it "obsession", but maybe it's nearly something like that, who knows. So as I listened to a lot of what is generally called chansons francaises (oh-how I hate it that last.fm won't accept the cedilla...) I thought of writing a journal entry for quite some time now, but I wasn't sure which form I should use. I think I will just present (as in "list") those artists I like the most, accompanied by their album I think is the best so far, the one I think is the most representative - or just the only one I know.

In addition to this journal entry I created a playlist to make all of those wonderful singers easily accessable (for the subscribers, of course) without having to use a radio station, especially because I of course only chosed two or three songs I think are good to show the variety of each of the people I talk about as well as of the whole nouvelle scene francaise (oh-how I hate it that last.fm won't accept the accent - and the cedilla...).



I just love Bénabar! Bruno Nicolini makes what I consider to be quite typical "chansons modernes", sung with a wonderful voice and interpreted with a lot of gorgeous humour. His third album Les risques du métier was a big success and made him quite famous, but with Reprise des négociations he sings himself like a piercing bolt of amor right through my heart.
Bruxelles and Le méchant de James Bond are two of my absolute favourites of his songs, the first one being one of the VERY FEW that make me want to dance and jump on my bed, the second one just being beautiful.



For me personally Jeanne Cherhal was always the artist I had to think of immediately when I read or heard about the term "nouvelle scène française". Her songs are fresh, very modern, a little bit playful, but without being childish although she seems to tend to don't take herself too serious.
Unfortunately and sadly the only available song is La Valse Des Etiquettes. I really would like to show you the charme of "Canicule" and "Rondes larmes", both from her latest album L'Eau...



Miossec, although known to me by name for a few years now, is a quite new discovery for me musically, because I never heard a song by him (or at least I can't remember) until I got his compilation album "- BREST OF - (Tout ça pour ça)" (named after his town of birth) at the end of last year. I'm already in love, and although I know most of his albums now I still recommend his "Best of" as it shows perfectly the variety of his styles.
Christophe Miossec too is not really available at last.fm yet, and the only song streamable is Chanson pour Nathalie. I would say, though, that you should listen to the new versions of "La fidélité" and "Que devient ton poing quand tu tends les doigts", both of which are just... great!



Joseph d'Anvers, who released two album so far, if I'm not informed badly, caught me totally off guard with his song "Entre Mes Mains" from his second release "Les Jours Sauvages". His music has a lot of "Rock'n'Roll" to it, but not too much, as that would surely make me abhor it, and also the slightly "jazzy" tunes he uses sometimes really add something more intimate to his pop-rock style.
So far only his debut Les choses en face is streamable, from which I recommend Comme un souffle and Nos jours heureux.



Claire Diterzi's third album Tableau de Chasse was somewhat of a revelation for me. Her voice is phanatastic, her modern, mature, sometimes even avantgardish compositions are often so experimental without loosing their popsong-like structure that I seriously was a bit spechless at first listening.
I remember that L'odalisque reminded me a bit of Le Mystère des voix Bulgares... The second song I force you to listen to is the absolutely gorgeous La vieille chanteuse!



Vincent Delerm, son of the famous French author Philippe Delerm (who you might probably know for his work "La Première gorgée de bière et autres plaisirs minuscules", "The Small Pleasures of Life" in English), gained a lot of positive critics for his self-titled debut album Vincent Delerm, which I think is still his best one, although many people seem to tend to prefer his third release Les Piqûres D'Araignée (which is horribly tagged by the way...). Delerm writes beautiful humoristical and sometimes cynical songs he usually interpretes alone with his voice and a minimum of instrumentation besides the piano.
I absolutely recommend "Fanny Ardant et moi" and "Le monologue shakespearien" (his most popular song is "Tes parents" though), but, sadly enough, there are none of his songs available.



Pauline Croze is always the second female artist after Jeanne Cherhal I associate with the "nouvelle scène française". The first time I heard of her was when I watched a short documentation about Miossec on the Franco-German TV network "Arte" where the fact was mentionned that she was an opening act for him.
Her eponymous debut album Pauline Croze, that came out in 2005, features the two beautiful songs Larmes and Dans la chaleur des nuits de pleine lune.



Oh my god how I just adore Arman Méliès! Not only does he look heartbreakingly beautiful on the pictures for his latest release Casino, but this album itself is nothing less than a pure gem of a record. I really liked his last release Les Tortures Volontaires, but Casino just left me ruined. I don't know what he made with his voice between those two records, but whatever it was it had an astonishing effect. The arrangements for his new songs are absolutely phantastic, that being said: those are melancholic folk-pop-chansons of the highest order, and I can't recommend it enough!
His latest releases aren't streamable - however, you should listen to "Le Soupir du Monde" and the title song "Casino" anyway - so I dare you to give this unbelievably talented artist a try by listening to Encore Une Fois and La Conjuration des Phalènes!



I think now it's time to talk a little about Françoise Hardy, the QUEEN. First I thought about don't mention her at all as I surely cannot say something new and as she is already known to most of you anyway, but as I have to realise quite often that so many people don't know her latest works and only listen to the songs from her Yé-Yé-period I believe that this could be a good place to recomend what I consider to be her very best works to date: Tant de Belles Choses and, her latest one, (Parenthèses...). Don't get me wrong, I love nearly all of her songs, and many of them have their own little place close to my heart, but, as difficult it may be to compare her early and her later compositions, I believe that these two albums simply are near to what one would call perfect.

Of course the messages she transports with her albums are always quite simpel, but never profane or banal - but I have to admit that this may just be the case for me because they are presented in French... From the 2004 record I recommend the wonderful Soir de gala and the title song Tant De Belles Choses., the main refrain line of which is just too beautiful to be Kitsch: "L'amour est plus fort que la mort."

Her latest album (Parenthèses...), released in 2006, features twelve songs (some being wellknown, some being rarities), interpreted as duos with quite an impressive selection of singers and musicians: Alain Souchon, Françoise's husband Jacques Dutronc, their son Thomas Dutronc, Benjamin Biolay (the last two of which I have yet to write about), Rodolphe Burger, Henry Salvador, Julio Iglesias, even Alain Delon - and the wonderful classical pianoplayer Hélène Grimaud, who accompanies Françoise on the insanely pretty La Valse Des Regrets.



Keren Meloul, who makes music as Rose, released her self-tiled debut album Rose in 2006, and I wish I could have been able to listen to her earlier - I discovered her music, which I embraced very deeply, somewhen in the beginning of this year.
She writes pretty, light, soft and gentle folkish chansons with mature, poetic and intimate lyrics, like Saisons and Sombre Con, which are my absolute favourites.



Another artist who is already very precious to me is Daphné. I was a bit unsure what to think about her when I listened to her debut L'émeraude, as it is a little bit too experimental "pseudo-trip-hop'ish" for my liking, but I was intrigued from the first time by her voice. When her second album Carmin came out in 2007 and I heard the first song (I think it was Les phénix) I was so very happy that I haven't "dismissed" her. That whole album is just pretty, but the most pretty song of all is Le Petit Navire! Really, you will LOVE it! The second one I chosed is L'Homme Piano.



Although Dominique Ané, who releases his music as Dominique A, is a very influential musician who has worked with lots of different singers, musicians and producers he is probably best known for his collaborations with Yann Tiersen for Monochrome, Les Bras De Mer (from the album Le Phare) and Bagatelle (from L'absente). He has a very varied style and wrote less "classical" chansons but minimalist rock songs in the beginnin of his career, but turned to a more gentle form later.
The album which I like the most at the moment is Tout sera comme avant, which features the beautiful Elle Parle À Des Gens Qui Ne Sont Pas Là and Bowling.



For a long time I wasn't really interested in discovering Keren Ann, I have to admit, although I knew her before since 2000, when she released her solo debut. It's not too surprising though that I gave her a try when I realised that she worked together with Benjamin Biolay, the arrangements of which for her records gave him the possibility to finally earn a contract himself. The second album La Disparition is the one that made me fall in love with her music because of her soft, fragile and caressing voice, singing over beautifully gentle melodies. Besides, it's an album on which you hardly find songs that are sung in English.
Surannée and Les Rivieres de Janvier are the two songs I like the most, especially the first one (the second one should actually be "Les rivières de janvier", so I apologize for forcing you to listen to an incorrectly tagged song).



So as I already wrote about Benjamin Biolay two times I should mention his gorgeous double-CD album Négatif now. At first I thought that I have to chose his debut Rose Kennedy, which is really beautiful (especially Les Cerfs Volants and Les joggers sur la plage), but it actually were songs like Little Darlin' and Glory Hole that made him so precious for me. His dark, melancholic voice and his phantastic arrangements, the way he uses strings and discrete brass instruments in some songs are just an incredibly pretty mixture.



Daniel Darc, the former singer of the New Wave band Taxi Girl released his beautiful album Crèvecœur in 2004. Most of the people seem to enjoy this years album Amours Suprêmes (the title is a reference to A Love Supreme by John Coltrane) more, but I still prefer the gentle, slightly melancholic, soft, romantic songs on Crèvecœur.
I suggest you listen to Rouge Rose and Je Me Souviens, Je Me Rappelle.



I love Emily Loizeau! I was presented with a special edition of her brilliant debut album L'autre Bout Du Monde out of the blue the year it came out, and adored her ever since. I higly recommend "Jasseron", her duett with Franck Monnet, and "Comment dire", but as the only songs available are the title song L'autre bout du monde and Je suis jalouse I will put those two in the list - and I can live with that quite well, as both pieces are wonderful compositions and beautifully sung - simply great!



Olivia Ruiz released her debut album J'aime pas l'amour in 2003 after she was featured in the French TV show "Star Academy". Though she released her last album Chocolat Show, a concert recording, last year it is still her second one, La Femme Chocolat, which is considered her best, and I can't disagree. It features the gorgeous Non-Dits, a duett with Christian Olivier, as well as the even more gorgeous title trackLa Femme Chocolat, both of which were also singles.



So I have to admit that I listen to Calogero sometimes. I say "admit" because I would have never guessed that I could ever like something of that type of music he makes, as it is just pop, to put it simple, and I usually abhor modern popmusic. But his second, self-titled album Calogero is really nice, especially in situations that are strenuous and you want to force an easening effect. The hit-single En apesanteur and Prouver l'amour are the two songs I like the most from that album, although Prendre racine, another single, is beautiful too.



I really can't understand why Françoiz Breut is nearly unknown in any other country than France. Formerly known as Françoiz Brrr, she met Dominique A somewhen in the beginning of the 90s, who helped her starting a career as a singer. Her self-titled album Françoiz Breut was released in 1997, and the secon one, the phantastic Vingt à trente mille jours, three years later. Her songs are often a little bit experimental, with somber and melancholic melodies, combined with her wonderfully pretty voice. Both her debut and her second album feature the unbelievably, insanely, gorgeously beautiful Si tu disais, and you are really fortunate because it is streamable on last.fm. I promise you will love that song! The only other song is La Rue ne te reprendra pas, what makes me a bit sad because I would love to show you "Silhouette minuscule"...



Bertrand Betsch's music is just perfect for activities like cleaning the apartment, washing the dishes, watering the plants, or dancing through the rooms. In 2005 he released his album Pas de bras, pas de chocolat, a nicely easening record full of fresh pop-chansons like the title song, but I decided to recommend Pas de bras (disco version), because it is just even more happy; the second song I chosed is L'ancienne peau



Constance Verluca is one of my latest discoveries. Her last years debut album Adieu Pony features such a wonderful mixture of songs and sounds so very French that I felt in love immediately. Of course it is my own subjective notion of the cliche of what does sound "French" that made me love it, but hey, at least I do, right?
I really would like to put "Judas" and "C'est Faux" into my playlist, but sadly Constance isn't streamable yet.



Thomas Fersen released his first album le bal des oiseaux in 1993 which gave him success over night and let him earn the title "Révélation masculine" in '94. Since then he released six other albums, a triple live album, a best-of and a DVD, changing his musical style from one album to the next, playing rock and folk-rock as well as blues and somewhat jazzy chansons. At the moment my favourite of his works is his 2005 release Le Pavillon Des Fous, from which I would recommend "Hyacinthe" and "La Chapelle de la Joie", but he is one of those artists who are not available here.



Another one of my more newer discoveries is Renan Luce, a nice young singer who released his first album Repenti two years ago in 2006. The two songs I recommend are Monsieur Marcel and La Lettre, which is his most favourite song so far together with Les voisines.



I think the best way to label the music by La Grande Sophie as pop-rock, or maybe rock-pop (is there a difference actually? Maybe rock with pop elements and pop with rock elements, or the like...). Her debut "La Grande Sophie s’agrandit" came out in 1997, but she first became really famous with her second record Le Porte-bonheur in 2001. The one album I like the most though is her fourth one, La Suite..., that was released in 2005. It's a nice listening experience for situation when, for example, Bertrand Betsch is too "poppy" for me and Constance Verluca or Rose too "folky". I don't listent to Sophie too often though, as I'm not often in the mood for light-rock-music like hers (of course that does surely not mean that she has not made pure popsongs)... Anyway, I say you should listen to "Psy psychanalyste", but this song is so badly tagged that it hurts my eyes, so I chosed La Suite, le Milieu, la Fin and Les Bonnes Résolutions for you.



And here we have Thomas Dutronc, the son of Françoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc. He released one album so far, Comme Un Manouche Sans Guitare, in 2007, and the whole record is full of happy, sunny, gypsy-folky-jazzy-whatever songs, the most beautiful one being J'Aime Plus Paris and Solitaires, a duett with Marie Modiano.



Adrienne Pauly, who exclusively acted in films for about eight years until she discovered her love for the piano released her eponymous first album Adrienne Pauly in 2006 and earned two nominations for the "Victoires de la Musique" for "Artist -" and "Album Discovery of the Year". Her album is a nice light French-rock work with wonderful songs like "Pourqoi" and "L'amour avec un con". But unfortunately we have here again an artist who is nearly unavailable - with the exception being the song J'veux Un Mec (Radio Mix).



Marie Laforêt definetely is my PRINCESS, considering Françoise Hardy the QUEEN. She played in 39 movies, the last role in this years "Les Bureaux de Dieu", and she released so many records, albums, compilations, best-ofs etc (at least more than 30, I think), and sung so many songs, that it is really difficult to decide which work to chose. I think that Les vendanges de l'amour is perfect though. Of course it is as difficult to decide which song could possibly the most representative, but as I donÄ't think that I'm in the position to judge this I just chosed two of her chansons which I believe are simply pretty: the song of the same name as the album, Les Vendanges De L'Amour, and A demain my darling.



I think the name Alain Bashung is known to most of the people who are at least slightly interested in the - let's call it "somewhat pseudo-intellectual" - European musical culture. He released 13 albums, three live CDs and a compilation since his debut in 1977 and earned quite a lot "Victoires de la Musique" - three in 1999 for his album Fantaisie militaire and one additional afterwards in 2005 for having composed the best album of the last 20 years.
Although the two songs that are considered the best ones from this album are La Nuit Je Mens and Aucun Express (I think) I chosed Au Pavillon Des Lauriers and Sommes-Nous instead, simply because I like them the most.



This shall be enough for now, this whole journal entry is already way too long. But as I really want to write something about all the other French artists I have in mind, wonderful people like Henri Salvador, Clarika, Cali, Alain Souchon, Arthur H, Véronique Sanson and so many others, most of which I really love, I surely will write another entry soon.

First, make a list of your top20 artists overall. Then, for each of these artists, add the 8 most similar artists to your list. Delete any duplicates, count up the number of entries on your list and this will give you some idea of how eclectic your listening habits are. A score of 9 represents an extremely unvaried musical taste while a 160 represents an extremely varied one.

My top20:

1. CMX
2. Tori Amos
3. Rufus Wainwright
4. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
5. Martha Wainwright
6. Sia
7. Bonnie “Prince” Billy
8. Regina Spektor
9. Camille
10. Scissor Sisters
11. Björk
12. Cat Power
13. Émilie Simon
14. Belle & Sebastian
15. Pauline Croze
16. Damien Rice
17. PJ Harvey
18. Red Hot Chili Peppers
19. Beth Orton
20. Bénabar

Similar artists:

1. YUP
2. Absoluuttinen Nollapiste
3. Maj Karma
4. Ismo Alanko Säätiö
5. Zen Café
6. Jarkko Martikainen
7. Viikate
8. Kotiteollisuus
9. Kate Bush
10. Y Kant Tori Read
11. PJ Harvey
12. Alanis Morissette
13. Charlotte Martin
14. Fiona Apple
15. Sarah McLachlan
16. Sarah Slean
17. Martha Wainwright
18. Antony and the Johnsons
19. Ron Sexsmith
20. Patrick Wolf
21. Patrick Watson
22. Teddy Thompson
23. Final Fantasy
24. Ed Harcourt
25. Nick Cave
26. The Birthday Party
27. Grinderman
28. Mick Harvey
29. Tindersticks
30. The Boy Next Door
31. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
32. Rufus Wainwright
33. Joan as a Police Woman
34. Laura Marling
35. Ane Brun
36. Gemma Hayes
37. Beth Orton
38. Kate & Anna McGarrigle
39. Zero 7
40. Emiliana Torrini
41. Flunk
42. Tina Dico
43. Esthero
44 Natalie Walker
45. Goldfrapp
46. Lamb
47. Will Oldham
48. Palace Brothers
49. Smog
50. Palace Music
51. Palace
52. Songs: Ohia
53. Silver Jews
54. Lambchop
55. Fiona Apple
56. Feist
57. Rachael Yamagata
58. Kate Nash
59. Kimya Dawson
60. Tori Amos
61. St. Vincent
62. Rilo Kiley
63. Jeanne Cherhal
64. Pauline Croze
65. Olivia Ruiz
66. Bénabar
67. Benjamin Biolay
68. Coralie Clément
69. Thomas Fersen
70. Cali
71. Melody Club
72. Electric Six
73. The Ark
74. Calvin Harris
75. Basement Jaxx
76. Sophie Ellis-Bextor
77. Junior Senior
78. The Sugarcubes
79. múm
80. KUKL
81. Sigur Rós
82. Björk Guðmundsdóttir & Trió Guðmundar Ingólfssonar
83. Portishead
84. Anja Garbarek
85. Camille
86. Keren Ann
87. Björk
88. Zazie
89. Mirah
90. Scout Niblett
91. Liz Phair
92. She & Him
93. Camera Obscura
94. of Montreal
95. The Magnetic Fields
96. Jens Lekman
97. Architecture in Helsinki
98. Isobel Campbell
99. The Gentle Waves
100. The Boy Least Likely To
101. Adrienne Pauly
102. Mathieu Boogaerts
103. Lisa Hannigan
104. The Frames
105. Tom McRae
106. The Cake Sale
107. Bell X1
108. Joseph Arthur
109. Iron & Wine
110. Glen Hansard
111. John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey
112. Cat Power
113. Patti Smith
114. The Kills
115. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
116. Bat for Lashes
117. JANE’S ADDICTION
118. Foo Fighters
119. Incubus
120. Nirvana
121. Lenny Kravitz
122. The Smashing Pumpkins
123. Pearl Jam
124. The Offspring
125. Aimee Mann
126. Suzanne Vega
127. Natalie Merchant
128. Everything but the Girl
129. Lucinda Williams
130. Heather Nova
131. Alain Souchon
132. Vincent Delerm
133. Renaud
134. Aldebert
135. Renan Luce
136. Les Wriggles

My stats are going to be weird this week, I have more than 300 new tracks. I guess the seeds for this new music week were sown about a month ago, when I bought a set of CDs with the best 100 works of Johann Sebastian Bach. I read Gödel, Escher, Bach (by Douglas R. Hofstadter) a couple of years ago, but it's not until now, as I'm three-quarters of the way through Le Ton beau de Marot, that I finally decide to listen to some Bach. But alas, my DVD drive went on the blink, and I was only able to rip three of the 6 CDs, and that with some audible errors in the resulting music files.

A couple of weeks ago, my Mac wouldn't wake up one morning, so I took it in to be fixed, and an excruciating week later I had it back with a new DVD drive and a new hard drive. So I could at last rip the other few disks, though I haven't done them all yet.

Then last Saturday I was in neighbouring France so I went into a shopping centre in search of Sarah Bettens' new album, Shine, knowing that it had already been released in France but I'd have to wait until October 19 to get it in Switzerland. As luck would have it, this supermarket had no music stores, I couldn't only look for it in the music section of Migros (yeah, they're taking over France as well!) They didn't have it, but they did have a cheap CD of Comprend Qui Peut, so I bought that, knowing that Boby Lapointe sings very silly songs.

A few days later, the iTunes Music Store added some K's Choice albums, including their live album which I didn't have. Perhaps this was in preparation for releasing Shine. Anyway, I bough the live album, this will prepare me for seeing Sarah Bettens in concert.

Then I discovered that there were several Jonathan Coulton tracks which had somehow escaped my attention, including, but not limited to, his Ze Frank songs. I bought them all, and while browsing JoCo's website I found a link to Brad Sucks and downloaded all his music. Also, somewhere along the line I finally got around to converting the Zunior FLAC sampler to Apple Lossless.

On Thursday night (late-night shopping), I went to fnac in the hope that somehow they'd have Shine a day early. I ended up buying a set of the best 100 songs by Serge Gainsbourg. It was going to have to happen eventually... I have the impression that every francophone is familiar with his songs, so I should be too. Anyway I liked the cover of La Javanaise that the guy who I mention in way too many journal entries whom I'm not going to link here did at his concert.

When I got home I decided that if I was going to familiarise myself with Gainsbourg, I should also listen to Alain Souchon. He is, after all, one of the inspirations for the guy I'm not going to mention, according to an interview I read. So I bought an album of his on iTunes.

Later that same night, I noticed, thanks to Lastfm, that Tom Smith has a whole lot more songs than just PC99, which I had on the Technobabble album. Indeed, he has a lot of tracks for free download. So I downloaded them. This also lead me to discover FuMP, where many other silly songs can be downloaded for free. So I got some of those.

The release date of Shine came and even nine whole hours after midnight (yeah, I'm impatient) there was still nothing on iTunes. So I had a look at the forums on Sarah's website and somebody mentioned that her brother Woodface had a new album out. Woohoo! So I bought that.

I decided to go to another concert of the guy I'm not going to mention, and while looking at other concerts at the same venue, I found Chanson Plus Bifluorée. Silly songs galore! And what's more, their 47-track album De concert et d'imprévu was only 30 francs on iTunes. I listened to the preview of Grammaire song and I was sold.

Yesterday I didn't have time to look for Shine because I was at a festival in Morges all day, but I did notice that there's a CD shop at the train station whihc is open on Sunday (open on Sunday, in Geneva! Can you believe it?) so I'm about to go there. I'm not too hopeful though... their website says Shine won't be out until November 2. As if this were Belgium. It looks like this week will be the substitute-for-Shine week, and maybe next week will be the Shine week.

Edit 24/10: The mythical open-on-Sundays CD shop had disappeared when I went to look for it. I'm not sure exactly where it is any more. But according to the Scream Team mailing:

In Switzerland, Shine might already be in the shops as no official release date was announced and the CDs have been shipped to Switzerland early this week.

I stumbled upon this method to determine what an eclectic music listener you can be, and it seemed like it could work.

First, make a list of your top-20 artists overall. Then, for each of these artists, add the 8 most similar artists to your list. Delete any duplicates, count up the number of entries on your list and this will give you some idea of how eclectic your listening habits are. A score of 9 represents an extremely unvaried musical taste while a 160 represents an extremely varied one (DO NOT count your top 20 artists, only the similar artists).

So I came up with these results, and a total of 118/160 :

1. The Smashing Pumpkins
Radiohead
Foo Fighters
Weezer
Pixies
Nirvana
The White Stripes
REM
Muse

2. Tommy heavenly6
the brilliant green
OLIVIA
大塚愛
Do As Infinity
NANA starring MIKA NAKASHIMA
Anna Tsuchiya
hitomi

3. Tommy february6
安室奈美恵
宇多田ヒカル
倖田來未
中島美嘉
浜崎あゆみ
モーニング娘

4. Stevie Wonder
Marvin Gaye
James Brown
Al Green
Prince
The Temptations
The Jackson 5
Aretha Franklin
Sly & The Family Stone

5. Madame Kay
Silvertide
Revolverhead
The Rasmus
Silbermond
Chad Kroeger
Lenny Kravitz
U2
Theory of a Deadman

6. Camille
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Keren Ann
Olivia Ruiz
Pauline Croze
Feist
Carla Bruni
Anaïs

7. Emilie Simon
Björk
Goldfrapp
Portishead
Emiliana Torrini
Air
Hooverphonic
Massive Attack
Archive

8. Les Fatals Picards
Didier Super
Les Wriggles
Les Inconnus
Les Ogres de Barback
Les VRP
Les Joyeux Urbains
Matmatah
Bénabar

9. 宇多田ヒカル
BoA
Utada

10. Emily Loizeau
Clarika
Mansfield.TYA

11. Loreena McKennitt
Clannad
Enya
Capercaillie
Karen Matheson
Secret Garden
Blackmore's Night
Moya Brennan
Lisa Lynne

12. Jeanne Cherhal
Thomas Fersen
Vincent Delerm
Cali

13. Albin de la Simone
Bertrand Betsch
Alexis HK
Mathieu Boogaerts
Arthur H

14. Metric
Stars
Broken Social Scene
Tegan and Sara
Rilo Kiley
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The Arcade Fire
The New Pornographers
The Shins

15. Silverchair
Bush
Pearl Jam
Incubus
Stone Temple Pilots
Soundgarden

16. Claire Diterzi
Barbara

17. Vulgaires Machins
Exterio
Xavier Caféïne
Les Trois Accords
Capitaine Révolte
Bérurier Noir
The Sainte Catherines
Eric Panic
Subb

18. Joe Dassin
Charles Aznavour
Gilbert Bécaud
Jacques Brel
Georges Brassens
Michel Delpech
Patricia Kaas
Renaud
Alain Souchon

19. Nosfell
Noir Désir
Ghinzu
Tarmac
Syd Matters
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine
dEUS
Lodger

20. La Grande Sophie
Zazie
Superbus

Take your top 20 artists. For each of these artists, collect the top 5 similar artists. The resulting number of unique artists is your eclectic score. If the score is small (extreme = 5) your musical preferences are very limited, and if it is large (larger than 80, extreme = 100), then you have an eclectic musical preference. You can compute your own score at http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/eclectic.php

My eclectic score is currently




The 89 related artists for my profile are Air Alain Souchon Amp Fiddler Anthony Rother (3) Aphex Twin April March Arctic Monkeys Autechre Bob Dylan Bonobo Carl Craig (2) Caustic Window Chicks on Speed Coldcut Coldplay Dan Curtin Daniel Bell Dave Clarke David Carretta Dionysos DJ Naughty Dominique A (2) Donald Byrd Drexciya Emilie Simon Feist Fixmer/McCarthy Four Tet Heiko Laux Herbert Isolée Jean-Louis Murat Jeff Mills (2) Jimi Hendrix Joey Beltram Joris Voorn Kenny Larkin Kosmas Epsilon Ladytron LCD Soundsystem (2) Le Peuple de l'Herbe Le Tigre Led Zeppelin (2) LemonOrange Lo Step Lostep M.I.A. Miossec Model 500 Momus Moodymann New Order Noir Désir Olivia Ruiz Paul Kalkbrenner Peaches Pink Floyd Plastikman Polygon Window Prefuse 73 Radiohead (2) Ricardo Villalobos Richie Hawtin Robert Hood Saint Etienne Serge Gainsbourg (2) Sonic Youth Spooky Squarepusher Stereolab Steve Bug Surgeon The Beatles The Cure The Doors The Hacker The Herbaliser The Killers The Knife The Rolling Stones The Smiths The Strokes The Velvet Underground The White Stripes Theo Parrish (2) Thievery Corporation Underground Resistance (2) Underworld Wax Tailor

Take your top 20 artists. For each of these artists, collect the top 5 similar artists. The resulting number of unique artists is your eclectic score. If the score is small (extreme = 5) your musical preferences are very limited, and if it is large (larger than 80, extreme = 100), then you have an eclectic musical preference. You can compute your own score at http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/eclectic.php

My eclectic score is currently




The 82 related artists for my profile are 2 Many DJ's Admiral Freebee Alain Souchon An Pierlé Arctic Monkeys Arsenal Beck Beyoncé Bill Evans Black Eyed Peas Bob Dylan Brigitte Bardot Britney Spears Chet Baker Chris Rea Christina Aguilera Coldplay (5) Daan (2) De-Phazz dEUS Dhanab Al Jady Diya Al Din Fareeda France Gall Franz Ferdinand Françoise Hardy Gwen Stefani (2) Jacques Brel Jacques Dutronc James Blunt Jawab-a-shikwa Jean-Jacques Goldman Joe Cocker John Mayer Justin Timberlake Keane Kenny Burrell Kylie Minogue (2) LCD Soundsystem Madonna (2) Magnus Maroon 5 Massive Attack Michael Bublé Michael Jackson Natalia Nelly Furtado Noordkaap Norah Jones Nur Al Din Oasis Oscar Peterson Ozark Henry R.E.M. Radiohead (4) Red Hot Chili Peppers (3) Rihanna Robbie Williams Roxette Shameboy Sioen Sonic Youth St. Germain Sugababes Sven van Hees Tanita Tikaram The Arcade Fire The Beatles (3) The Killers (2) The Rolling Stones The Strokes The Velvet Underground (2) The White Stripes (2) Thievery Corporation Tiga Tina Turner Tosca U2 Vitalic Wes Montgomery Wham! Zazie