 
DeeJay IJ arrives with a bag of goodies, or so he represented it to me: stuff he thought was great and worth checking out, though when pressed he admits he is passing on other people's assurances and hasn't actually listened to it himself. I waded through the bag and there were some pleasant moments but also a lot of dross. I tried hard with two albums, one was Keb Mo's BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND, which should be good: a bunch of familiar old sixties protest songs done with sincerity and passion, but ultimately not very engaging. Next up some bad news. I really don't know why there is any interest in the singing career of Serge Gainsbourg. Sure he was a bad boy, etc, etc, boffing starlets without removing his Gauloises or getting out of bed to shave, but his "new" release sucks. Titled "Mauvaises nouvelles des etoiles" it is inded "bad news from the stars". It is a reggae album. Now I know Robert Mitchum made a calypso album and there are folks who thought it was good, but anyone, & I do mean anyone, could get up in front of Sly & Robbie and share a medicinal spliff with the Lone Ranger & cut something as good if not a lot better. Throw in the I-Threes on backing vocals, Sticky on percussion, Ansel Collins on organ, and "Mao" Chung on guitar and you can't fail. In theory. I can see me now doing "Johnny Too Bad" and "Police and Thieves" with my old bass-man Grandmaster Dan adding his Joycean rap! But Gainsbourg bombs: this is wretched. With pretentious lyrics like "Ecce Homo" you gotta ask, who paid for this and why? (Hey, didn't James Joyce have a rap song called "Ecce Homo"!? you insist.) Are the fans that stupid that they will listen to anything? Who are these Gainsbourg-listening fans? Even the bonus disc of reworked dubs is garbage. The liner notes say the posthumous irony is not lost on anyone. No, but it should have been lost. -- Doctor Rhythm
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SERGE GAINSBOURG