Review: Charlotte Gainsbourg

Review: Charlotte Gainsbourg

Charlotte Gainsbourg '5:55': Aidin Vaziri | Her father inspired an entire generation of men with beautifully tailored suits and perfectly dirty minds to stand behind a microphone, so it only makes sense that a few of them would return the favor now. The members of Air provide the music, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon write the words and Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck) is behind the producer's desk on the first album in 20 years by Charlotte Gainsbourg -- daughter of French pop icon Serge Gainsbourg and singer-actress Jane Birkin. The music is appropriately dark and spacious, each song wafting by like a plume of smoke off a Gitanes. Even though she has spent the past two decades appearing in films ("The Science of Sleep," "Lemmings"), her father's influence has not diminished, particularly on breathy showstoppers like the title track and "The Songs That We Sing."