Rest (Charlotte Gainsbourg album)
Untitled | |
---|---|
Rest is the fifth album by French musician and actress Charlotte Gainsbourg. It was primarily produced by French electronic musician SebastiAn, and released on 17 November 2017 by Because Music. It is her first album release in six years, and features collaborations with Paul McCartney, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Owen Pallett and Connan Mockasin, among others. The tracks "Rest" and "Deadly Valentine" were released as singles and music videos, both directed by Gainsbourg herself.
The album explores the deaths of Gainsbourg's father Serge Gainsbourg and half-sister Kate Barry, with a focus on the theme of alcohol addiction. She has commented that "the album took a different direction. I wanted to express [my grief] not only with sadness but with anger."[1] The lyrics are in English and French.[1][2]
Critical reception
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 80/100[3] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [4] |
The A.V. Club | B+[5] |
Pitchfork | 8.7/10[6] |
Q | [7] |
Rolling Stone | [8] |
The Guardian | [9] |
Under the Radar | 8/10[10] |
The Line of Best Fit | 9/10[11] |
Uncut | [12] |
Mojo | [13] |
Rest received acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 80 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews" based on 21 reviews.[14] Olivia Horn of Pitchfork awarded the album a "Best New Music" designation, claiming "it is at once scorchingly intimate and fantastically oversized".[15] Exclaim!'s Anna Alger praised Gainsbourg for striking "a balance between sombre beauty and a mix of Euro disco, funk and pop."[16]
Accolades
Publication | Accolade | Rank | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Albumism | 50 Best Albums of 2017 | 11
|
|
BrooklynVegan | Top 50 Albums of 2017 | 29
|
|
Drowned in Sound | Favourite Albums of 2017 | 64
|
|
FLOOD | The Best Albums of 2017 | 5
|
|
Earbuddy | 100 Best Albums of 2017 | 13
|
|
Noisey | The 100 Best Albums of 2017 | 99
|
|
Pitchfork | The 50 Best Albums of 2017 | 17
|
|
The 20 Best Pop and R&B Albums of 2017 | 5
|
||
The Independent | 30 Best Albums of 2017 | 24
|
|
The Guardian | The Best Albums of 2017 | 31
|
Track listing
All lyrics written by Charlotte Gainsbourg; all music composed and produced by SebastiAn; except where noted
No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Ring-a-Ring o' Roses" | 4:28 | |||
2. | "Lying with You" |
| 3:18 | ||
3. | "Kate" | 3:40 | |||
4. | "Deadly Valentine" | 6:04 | |||
5. | "I'm a Lie" |
| 3:29 | ||
6. | "Rest" |
| de Homem-Christo | de Homem-Christo | 3:38 |
7. | "Sylvia Says" |
| 4:27 | ||
8. | "Songbird in a Cage" | Paul McCartney | McCartney | 4:32 | |
9. | "Dans vos airs" |
|
| 3:33 | |
10. | "Les Crocodiles" |
|
| 3:17 | |
11. | "Les Oxalis" | 7:57 | |||
Total length: | 46:23 |
Notes
- ^[a] signifies an additional vocal producer.
Personnel
- Charlotte Gainsbourg – vocals
- SebastiAn – piano, organ, synthesizer, harpischord, drum programming, backing vocals, clavinet, guitar, bells, electric piano, production, arrangement, engineering
- Paul McCartney – guitar, piano, drums on track 8
- Emile Sornin – bass, glockenspiel, electric organ (philicorda), electric piano (Wurlitzer), tambourine, noises, Mellotron, clavinet, guitar, percussion
- Vincent Taeger - drums
- Gabriel Cabezas – cello
- Rachel Drehmann – French horn
- David Nelson – trombone
- Nadia Sirota – viola
- Anna Elashvili – violin
- Annaliesa Place – violin
- Laura Lutzke – violin
- Patricia Kilroy – violin
- Pauline Kim Harris – violin
- Rob Moose – violin
- Owen Pallett – arrangement, conductor (strings and horns)
- Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo – production on track 6
- Eric Chedeville – engineering and mixing on track 6
- Tom Elmhirst – mixing on tracks 1 to 5 and 7 to 11
- Brian Burton – production (additional vocal production), editing on tracks 2, 5, 9 and 10
- Chab (Antoine Chabert) – mastering
Charts
Chart (2017–18) | Peak position |
---|---|
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[28] | 49 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[29] | 18 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[30] | 9 |
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[31] | 63 |
French Albums (SNEP)[32] | 14 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[33] | 74 |
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[34] | 38 |
Scottish Albums (OCC)[35] | 66 |
UK Albums (OCC)[36] | 89 |
Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
France (SNEP)[37] | Gold | 50,000‡ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
References
- ^ a b E.W.: In “Rest”, Charlotte Gainsbourg explores the sharp edges of grief. The Economist (2017). [1]
- ^ Anna Gaca: Video: Charlotte Gainsbourg – “Rest”. Spin (2017)
- ^ "Rest Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
- ^ Phares, Heather (3 December 2017). "Charlotte Gainsbourg - Rest". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- ^ The A.V. Club
- ^ Pitchfork
- ^ The balancing of Gainsbourg's natural good taste with this deeper emotional resonance remains key throughout. [Jan 2018, p.109]
- ^ Dolan, Jon (20 November 2017). "Review: Charlotte Gainsbourg Takes Spacey Trip With Sir Paul, Half of Daft Punk". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- ^ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (18 November 2017). "Charlotte Gainsbourg: Rest review – musical chameleon finds her voice – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
- ^ Peirson-Hagger, Ellen (15 November 2017). "Charlotte Gainsbourg - Rest". Under the Radar. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- ^ "Rest by Charlotte Gainsbourg; Album Review". The Line Of Best Fit. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
- ^ The voice is all Gainsbourg. [Dec 2017, p.27]
- ^ If you like Serge's music, or Jane Birkin's, their daughter's latest is a laudable addition to the canon. [Dec 2017, p.89]
- ^ [2]
- ^ Horn, Olivia (February 17, 2012). "Charlotte Gainbourg: Rest". Pitchfork. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
- ^ "Charlotte Gainsbourg Rest". exclaim.ca. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
- ^ http://www.albumism.com/lists/best-albums-of-2017-index
- ^ http://www.brooklynvegan.com/brooklynvegans-top-50-albums-of-2017/
- ^ "Drowned in Sound's Favourite Albums of 2017". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- ^ http://floodmagazine.com/47724/the-best-albums-of-2017/
- ^ http://www.earbuddy.net/70003/earbuddys-100-best-albums-of-2017.html/albums-of-the-year
- ^ https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/pazbwn/noisey-100-best-albums-of-2017
- ^ "The 50 Best Albums of 2017". Pitchfork. 12 December 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-20-best-pop-and-randb-albums-of-2017/
- ^ The Independent Staff (27 November 2017). "30 Best Albums of 2017". The Independent. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
- ^ The Guardian Staff (5 December 2017). "The best albums of 2017: the full list". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
- ^ https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/rest/id1278460269
- ^ "Austriancharts.at – Charlotte Gainsbourg – Rest" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
- ^ "Ultratop.be – Charlotte Gainsbourg – Rest" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- ^ "Ultratop.be – Charlotte Gainsbourg – Rest" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- ^ "Charlotte Gainsbourg Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- ^ "Le Top de la semaine : Top Albums – SNEP (Week 47, 2017)". Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Charlotte Gainsbourg – Rest" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
- ^ "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 2018. 14. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
- ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- ^ "French album certifications – Charlotte Gainsbourg – Rest" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Retrieved 7 March 2018.