Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck - Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW, Santa Monica, CA, 1-27-2010

This is part of my recent effort to post all the major appearances Beck has done on the Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show. But while this features Beck singing and/or playing guitar on every track, it's much more of a Charlotte Gainsbourg album.

I need to give some background to this. Charlotte Gainsbourg is a French-British actress and singer-songwriter. She is the daughter of French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg and British actress and singer Jane Birkin. Serge Gainsbourg in particular is kind of a musical legend in France (and Beck is a huge fan of his work), so she's had some very big shoes to fill. But although her album releases have been sporadic and her sales haven't been that great, her music has been critically acclaimed. Personally, I really like her stuff. I can easily see why Beck wanted to collaborate her, and not just as a nod to her father (who died in 1991, by the way).

In 2010, Charlotte Gainsbourg released the album "IRM." It's almost like a Beck album but with Gainsbourg singing the lead vocals, because Beck was the sole songwriter for all but three of the 13 songs, and he even co-wrote two of those. Furthermore, he produced the album, played instruments on all the songs, did backing vocals, and sang a duet on one song, "Heaven Can Wait."

But Beck naturally was also very busy with his own music career, so I haven't seen any sign that he went on tour with Gainsbourg to promote the album. However, they did do this one radio show together, so it's pretty unique. As with the album, Gainsbourg sang lead on nearly all the songs (with the exception of the "Heaven Can Wait" duet again). But Beck sang backing vocals so prominently that some of the other songs veered on duets too, and he played guitar on everything as well.

If you're a Beck fan, you could look at this, and the "IRM" album, almost like a lost Beck album. But also, it hopefully can be a gateway for people to discover Charlotte Gainsbourg's talent. Although virtually all the songs were written by Beck, her own songs are usually on the same high level.

This album is 30 minutes long.

01 Songs that We Sing (Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck)
02 Time of the Assassins (Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck)
03 Dandelion (Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck)
04 Heaven Can Wait (Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck)
05 In the End (Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck)
06 Masters Hands (Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck)
07 Me and Jane Doe (Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck)
08 The Collector (Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck)
09 Trick Pony (Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck)
10 Vanities (Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15514874/CharltteGnBeck_2010_MornngBcomsEclcticSntaMoncaCA__1-27-2010_atse.zip.html

The cover comes from a video of this exact radio show. However, Gainsbourg and Beck were sitting in different parts of the room. So I took screenshots of each of them and placed them side by side.