Jacques Dutronc - "Madame L'Existence" CD, Album, France, 2003 (Columbia)

When I purchased Jacques Dutronc's "Madame L'Existence" it was more out of curiosity than being loyal to the Dutronc brand.   I was aware of Dutronc's music from the 1960s and 70s, mostly due to my devotion to Serge Gainsbourg's music and his world.  Still, I don't speak French, but my love for French pop and literary culture is an obsession that is hard for me to explain.  All I know is I want to explore this foreign world, and individuals like Boris Vian and Gainsbourg were the bookends on the shelve that allow me to wander between "BV" and "SG" and back again.  

I adore Dutronc's 60s recording because it reminds me of a hybrid between Ray Davies' commentary on London culture as well as garage rock.  Dutronc seemed to do music that had a wink to the eye, and one of great wit.  Perhaps mostly due to the lyricist Jacques Lanzmann, who was much older than Dutronc, still, served as his mouthpiece with respect to music.    Lanzmann was in his 40s when he wrote lyrics for Dutronc, which dealt with the French teenage culture, but with a profound wit of an older man looking over the scene.  A critical eye perhaps, but I often think of his relationship with Dutronc must have been similar to the much older Paul Verlaine's tutoring the teenage Rimbaud, minus the sexual relationship of course. 

So, I was very curious to know what Dutronc would sound like in 2003, and what I heard was a pleasant shock.  For one, it sounded nothing like his 60s work, but in fact covered in a layer of electronic mood pop music, with Dutronc sounding not that far off from late Serge Gainsbourg.  No longer singing, but in a mixture of talking/phrasing his words for dramatic effect, it had a slightly sinister quality to the music.  Not sure if smoking or drinking, or even aging, has caused the great difference from within his voice, it still had the spirit of Jacques Dutronc.  

The one song that stays in my mind like a fly being caught on flypaper is "Face à la Merde" (In Front of the Shit), which has a haunting melody, and it does have a Gainsbourg approach to life.   A superb album, and as far as I know the last studio album by Dutronc.   I will like to hear from him sometime in 2018.