Is there a more perfect recording than "Le Temps de l'Amour?" I suspect the hand of Jacques Dutronc is part of the songwriting, but it's the Hardy magic that makes it work. Her iconic coolness slips off the vinyl and she is a unique artist in the French pop music world. Since I don't understand the French language, her approach to her singing is a mystery to me. The four song EP is a perfect format, and I'm sorry that it doesn't really exist anymore as an art form for recording artists. The French seemed to have a thing for that format in the early 1960s. Hardy had released a lot of her great material as an EP, and it's like a brief time with a great lover.
"Le Temps de l'Amour" and the three other songs on this EP are exceptional. It's like a well-balanced meal and I'm fully satisfied as a listener. The orchestration behind her is just guitar, percussion and perhaps an electric bass - it's very simple sound, but it's all there to support her voice. French pop music of this time, like France Gall, is an aural sculpture to me. I feel I can walk through the sounds and look at it from a distance.
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