Serge Gainsbourg Histoire De Melody Nelson

"[A] bizarre, beguiling concept album....With progressive composer/arranger Jean-Claude Vannier's cinematically swooning strings, loping bass, and twangy guitars."
"[N]ow a firm cult favourite, this bonkers slice of Gallic dirty-talk offers a very different kind of French lesson."
5 stars out of 5 -- "MELODY NELSON is generally regarded as Gainsbourg's career high....Like LOLITA, HISTOIRE DE MELODY NELSON is a kind of oratorio of desire..."
"HISTOIRE DE MELODY NELSON's skeletal, jazz-like structure - with bass frequently playing the role of lead instrument - influenced a generation of indie-rock tastemakers."
"HISTOIRE DE MELODY NELSON is where Gainsbourg's provocateur streak takes on something resembling grand scale. Lush and languorous..."
Pitchfork (Website) - "The arrangements seem to respond almost intuitively to the twists in Gainsbourg's language and narrative, to the point where they're carrying as much storytelling weight as the words."
5 stars out of 5 -- "Hired to backdrop Gainsbourg's spoken delivery, a whole host of British session musicians provided the rock element, while expert string arranger and medium-term collaborator Jean-Claude Vannier provided one of the most inventive, affecting orchestrations of a psych-into-prog era overdosing on them."
5 stars out of 5 -- "28 minutes of art-house rock that still stands unrivaled in the history of all recorded music."
Signal To Noise (p.78) - "[I]ts audacious blend of libidinous slow grooves, distorted rock guitar, and massive orchestration turned it into crate-diggers' gold."