un mélange de chansons

September 3, 2008

Occassionally, I like to take group of songs with a interesting similarity and make a mix about them (previously songs with bagpipe, hidden tracks).   Today’s mix is about songs where the title is a different language than the lyrics (just as you may have noticed that the title of this post is in French, and the post itself is written in English).  I think this technique can say something interesting about the song itself or maybe it just says that the band trying to show off how cultured and artistic they are.  Either way, I picked 8 songs that I love for this un mélange de chansons (translation: mix of songs). Enjoy!

MP3 Of Montreal – Du Og Meg MP3
What it means: The phrase is Norwegian for “You and Me”.  Kevin’s wife Nina is Norwegian and the song is about how the two met and fell in love.

MP3 Shearwater – La Dame et la Licorne
What It Means: French for “The Lady and the Unicorn”.  Its title refers to a medeviel tapastry which shows a taming of a unicorn, that can only be done by a virgin woman. The lyrics itself seem to be from the perspective of a young woman, traveling to visit her lover during a war.

MP3 Arcade Fire – Une Annee Sans Lumiere
What it means: The title is French for “A Year Without Lights” and the lyrics uses allusions to light and sparks to describe the the romance between two lovers which they hide from the girl’s father.  To be fair, I should point out that the song is sung in both English and French.

MP3 Islands – J’aime vous voir quitter
What It Means: The meaning of the title is “I love to see you leave” and it’s about the former Islands band member, J’aime Tambeur.  In a no-doubt purposeful jab at him , the French phrase contains his name and the word “quitter”, further hinting at J’aime’s departure.

MP3 Arizona – Te Amo Tanto What it means: The phrase is Spanish for “I love you very much”.  Adorable, right?.

MP3 Belle and Sebastian – Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie
What it means: “la Bourgeoisie” is French for the middle class or “the new rich” but le Pastie doesn’t have any French meaning.  The phrase could be a clumsily translated to “the apathy of the middle class” or just some nonsense that the band invented.

MP3 Ted Leo – La Costa Brava
What It Means: Costa Brava is a beach in northern Spain where the subject of the song plans a vacation from the troubles of the world.  In English, La Costa Brava means The Brave (or Wild) Coast.

MP3 Flaming Lips – Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung
What it means: Pompeii is the old roman city that got destroyed by a volcano and was discovered some 1500 years later.  Gotterdammerung is a german word meaning “the beginning of the end”.  The song fits both those ideas together about a couple who decide to end their lives by hurling themselves into a volcano.

Note: Much of this information was gathered from infromation found at at songmeanings.net.

Posted by Taylor in Mix