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Epicurus.com - 5:55
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List Price: $15.98
Our Price: $13.99
Your Save: $ 1.99 ( 12% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Vice Records
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0075678999680
Format: Enhanced
Label: Vice Records
Manufacturer: Vice Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Vice Records
Release Date: 2007-04-24
Studio: Vice Records
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Editorial Reviews:
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International movie star, fashion icon, and music royalty (daughter of French pop icon Serge Gainsbourg) makes her US debut. Already platinum in France with worldwide sales of over 500,000. The US CD release includes two previously unavailable bonus tracks, two music videos, and a video interview with Charlotte. Music by Air, lyrics by Jarvis Cocker and The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon, and produced by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck).
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: quite Nicoesque
Comment: Gainsbourg's untutored voice and weary, gallicized Brit-English remind me of nothing so much as Nico on her oddball classics of the early 70s, as does the combination of dark emotion over deceptively lush arrangements. The black humour, though, is a reminder that she's her father's daughter, even if she didn't write the lyrics herself (who could possibly care?).
Certainly the only album on which I've ever heard the wonderfully horrible word "abbatoir".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nice, but could have been much more
Comment: As a general rule, actresses that decide to take up singing don't usually fare too well with me. Their albums almost always come across as vanity projects, trying too hard to get attention from either the mainstream or the "hipster crowd." Knowing this, I was rather cynical when a friend recommended Charlotte's "The Songs That We Sing." This particular friend had pretty good taste and liked a lot of things that I also went for, so I tracked down the song and hoped it would be worth my time. To my surprise, it was actually pretty good! Shortly afterward, I decided to give the full album a try, hoping it would avoid the "singing actress" cliches and be as good as "The Songs That We Sing."
At first glance, there's not really much to complain about with this album. Charlotte's voice is pleasant, the music is relaxing, and most of the lyrics are pretty decent. "AF607105," "The Operation," "Little Monsters," and the aforementioned "The Songs That We Sing" even border on being great. "Everything That I Cannot See," with its swirling piano, is also a treat to hear.
However, something seems to be missing, and that keeps this disc from being more than just average. Truly fantastic albums have a certain "something" about them that keeps me coming back for more, and I don't really get that feeling with this one apart from a few tracks. Too much of this album plays it safe musically, which is a disappointment. For example, I can never really recall what "Beauty Mark," "Morning Song," "Jamais," or "Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping" sound like.
Despite these complaints, this is definitely not a bad album. There are some very nice moments on here. However, I can't call it spectacular either. Perhaps it just hasn't found me in exactly the right moment to fall completely in love with it, but for now I rate it a solid three stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Atmospheric.
Comment: Her mother Jane Birkin added her breathy, orgasmic tones to her father Serge Gainsbourg's "Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus".
And the family resemblances are unavoidable in Charlotte's album, that voice hesitant, barely a whisper at times, but shimmering with sexiness.
What saves this album from being a lot of Gallic mumblings bound up in its own self-importance is the heavweight help the family name commanded.
The result of Gainsbourg's meeting with Nicolas Godin, one half of French electronica duo Air, at a Radiohead concert in Paris, "5:55", is a carefully crafted gem.
Charlotte's voice is as slight and breathy as her mother's, but lyrics by Jarvis Cocker and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon create a hazy, Gauloise-inflected intimacy against full, string-rich arrangements by producer Nigel Godrich, those Parisian maestros of wafting electronica "Air" are on board, as is "Radiohead" producer Nigel Godrich and Nigerian percussionist Tony Allen, lauded by Brian Eno as "the greatest musician on the planet".
The title track "5:55" and the first single "The Songs That We Sing stand out", the former haunting and piano-led, the latter carrying an infectiously boisterous chorus.
At times Charlotte's thin voice and finishing-school vowels can grate, but the album as a whole is emotive, rewarding and compelling - a world away from feather-strewn beds and dodgy filial duets.
We get the mildly erotic, such as the teasing "Beauty Mark", and we get something like beat poetry in "AF607105", with its stark lines about air travel.
There's also big helpings of the kind of wistful balladeering only the French can muster.
4 * * * * and 1/2.
The Originals
Jane Birkin et Serge Gainsbourg
Songs That We Sing
L'Effrontee
Golden Door
Customer Rating:
Summary: A different Charlotte
Comment: Charlotte Gainsbourg 5:55 borrows more from "Air" than from her father Serge, and is a complete departure from her previous works. I had hoped that she would've stuck to French, but being the daughter of British singer/actress Jane Birkin (after whom the famous French luxury goods maker Hermès named one of its lines), her English is impeccable and sounds quite sexy. This is a good, solid performance, albeit not one that will keep you awake.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Somewhere between waking and sleeping
Comment: A couple of weeks ago I came across the US debut album 5:55 by Charlotte Gainsbourg at my local library. I read that she had worked with the guys in Air and Jarvis Cocker so I thought I would check the cd out. I have to admit that the album is a bit too mellow for my liking. It is definitely not something I want to listen to at the office but it is perfect to listen to at home. The dreamy ambient pop and Charlotte's whispery vocals. In lieu of the recent success of Feist and Yael Naim, I am surprised that Charlotte hasn't received a bit more attention since her vocals are awfully similiar to Feist and Yael's. All three women almost are just talking through out their music. However I am bored with Feist and Yael. What I like about 5:55 is Air's contributions. You can definitely hear the Air influences in the music with the deliciate melodies. It would have been nice if Charlotte would have ditched the dreamy pop sound for a bit and rocked out more, or if the beats took a more upbeat dance sound. The album does tend to be a bit too mellow but overall I do like what I heard.
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