music – Page 12 – Rob Mansfield: Content-ment

In defence of Carla Bruni

There has been a lot of news coverage of the state visit of French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni to the UK.

It just so happens that pictures of a nude Ms Bruni are being sold at auction to coincide with the visit and she she has also been accused of cashing in in other ways.

Now, clearly Carla Bruni is a model and there are bound to be pictures of her in various provocative poses, something that’s not exactly a surprise.

But I wish more people knew about her fantastic and burgeoning music career. Last year, she put out a beautiful album called Promises on which she puts famous poetry to music.

To give you an idea of how lovely and dreamy she sounds, this is I Felt My Life With Both My Hands, her version of the Emily Dickinson poem.

It’s all about the voice – Scott Walker

I was out in the pub with my ‘music mate’ Dave and we were discussing our specific favourite artists.

He’s a biiiiiiig Neil Young fan – so much so that he went to see him 4 nights on the trot recently – while we share a love of Cat Power, and he also worships at the altar of Bob Dylan.

I tend to fall down on the side of the likes of Nick Drake, Richard Hawley, Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush.

Then, Dave made the most astute observation about my tastes that I had never spotted before.

“It’s all about the voice with you, isn’t it?”

My god, of course it is. That’s why I love the likes of Rufus Wainwright, Regina Spektor and Scott Walker, as well. And that’s why I’m giving you this fantastic opening track from Scott 2 to listen to – Jackie.

Listen and revel in the warmth and velvety richness of Walker’s voice – wonderful!

When is a group no longer worthy of their name?

I watched Jonathan Ross on Friday night with some mild bemusement.

No, I wasn’t weirded out by his lame attempts at humour, but the adulation given to The Temptations.

Or rather 5 people singing together claiming to be The Temptations.

As the show wore on, it transpired (not that you had to be a genius to work it out) that only one of the line-up was in the original group.

All credit to the one who’d been going for 47 years (bottom right in the above pic, in case you’re interested), but what about the rest?

One had been there for 25 years, while the others had been with the line-up for 11, 5 and 1 – yup, you read that right – one year respectively.

They sounded great, but clearly this wasn’t the Temptations.. more like the Temps.

I find it hard to believe that people are that excited by a group when they’re only 20% genuine.

Much as I hate to bring them into this thread, the Sugababes are another example. Only 1 of the original 3 is now in the line-up. Does this mean they’re not the true group any more?

Surely I can’t be the only person who thinks this?