Carla Bruni Quelqu'un

Her first original album in seven years, the eponymous record is a reflection of Carla Bruni, a wholehearted embracing of her true self.Guitar, piano, a bit of foot-tapping and fragments of melody are the foundation of all the tracks, recorded with Albin de la Simone, who produced the entire album. The renowned multi-instrumentalist was determined to give her new songs the most delicate treatment. The music of the album bears witness to a unique temperament and a strong sense of the present moment. Always sensitive, with a desire for a calm simplicity, there is a disarming allure about Bruni’s songs: the intimacy, the simplicity, in a spirit of freedom, friendship and love.

Her first original album in seven years, the eponymous record is a reflection of Carla Bruni, a wholehearted embracing of her true self.Guitar, piano, a bit of foot-tapping and fragments of melody are the foundation of all the tracks, recorded with Albin de la Simone, who produced the entire album. The renowned multi-instrumentalist was determined to give her new songs the most delicate treatment. The music of the album bears witness to a unique temperament and a strong sense of the present moment. Always sensitive, with a desire for a calm simplicity, there is a disarming allure about Bruni’s songs: the intimacy, the simplicity, in a spirit of freedom, friendship and love.

After the runaway success of her charming, folksy first album Quelqu'un M'a Dit, Carla Bruni's sophomore effort takes a more difficult route and sees her setting canonical works by such poets as Yeats and Emily Dickinson to music, often calamitously. W.H. Auden's "At Last the Secret Is Out" offers a case in point. Set to a brisk Jack Johnson-style swinging guitar, the poem becomes stripped of all its meaning: no one word is allowed to stand out, as each line is madly shoehorned into a sensible rhythm, and the wistful, yearning tone of the poem gets lost in the breezy melody of the song. Therein lies the problem. Bruni's blues guitar template is too rigid to allow these words to breathe.

French Touch brings together a delightful trove of sentimental pop favorites; all reimagined in Carla Bruni's intimate and moving acoustic style and chosen for their personal significance in her own words, songs that inspire the French term for love at first sight a coup de foudre. Coup de foudre more or less also describes what happened when Bruni met Grammy award winning producer, composer, and musician David Foster after an L.A. performance in 2014. Foster volunteered to produce Carla's next record on the spot, and the two began a transatlantic sharing of songs, which was then shaped during twin recording sessions in Paris and L.A. French Touch is warm and familiar, and inimitably Carla. Richly melodic, warm yet minimal, and often slyly playful - all the arrangements in this collection have been given that French Touch, and still have all the universal appeal as their originals, albeit with a sultry flavor all their own.

IN 1988 FORMER ROLLING STONES guitarist Mick Taylor began what was to be a significant series of collaborations with L.A. based Carla Olson, first with their “Live at the Roxy” album Too Hot For Snakes, the centrepiece of which is an extended seven-minute performance of “Sway” included on this album. It was followed by Olson’s Within An Ace, which featured Taylor on seven songs. He appeared on three songs from Reap The Whirlwind and then again on Olson’s The Ring of Truth, on which he plays lead guitar on nine tracks, including a twelve-minute version of the song “Winter”. Further work by Olson and Taylor can be heard on the Olson-produced Barry Goldberg album Stoned Again. This is the best of their collaborations.

Four CD set. SoulMusic Records is proud to present a first-of-it's-kind complete collection of all of the Atlantic and Stax recordings by Carla Thomas, released between 1960-1968. With a total of 94 tracks, Let Me Be Good To You celebrates 'The First Lady Of Stax Records' whose 1961 classic hit 'Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes)' led to the Memphis-based label's distribution with Atlantic Records. Sequenced by session, the deluxe 4-CD set includes tracks from Carla's four solo albums, plus the famed 1967 King & Queen LP of duets with the late Otis Redding. The 'A' and 'B' sides of all of Carla's singles - including (28) non-album tracks - are featured including Carla's duets with her famous father, Rufus Thomas, along with five live recordings from Carla's 1967 performances in London and Paris with the famed Stax/Volt Revue. Produced by SoulMusic Records founder David Nathan, Let Me Be Good To You - The Atlantic & Stax Recordings (1960-1968) boasts a stellar 8,000-word extensive essay by renowned UK writer Charles Waring with 2020 quotes from Stax executive Al Bell, famed songwriter/producer David Porter, Carla's sister Vaneese (a recording artist in her own right) and former Stax publicist and songwriter Deanie Parker and others.