Maybe it shouldn’t be necessary Sean O’Hagan (The High Llamas, Microdisney) discover us at this point Louis Philippebut welcome is this retrospective selected by the British to rescue songs that the Frenchman dated between 1994 and 2007, already discontinued or finally recorded on vinyl: nothing is left over in the discography of this musician, a brilliant sports journalist (his are the award-winning biographies of Eric Cantona and Thierry Henry, two legends of French football, to which must be added his career as a chronicler for France Football), responsible for the excellent string arrangements of some of the best records of The Clienteleown The High Llamas, Martin Newell, Towa Tei (ex Deee-Lite), Bertrand Burgalat or our countrymen The good life and capital influence for the sound of Shibuya on the other side of the planet. Pop couture. Very fine thing. O’Hagan tells it in the promotional sheet: since they met in the Cherry Red offices, the crush on their music was instantaneous.
So serve up these fourteen delicious songs gathered together in this “Sean O’Hagan Presents: The Sunshine World Of Louis Philippe” –only available in physical format, don’t look for it on platforms– as a five-star appetizer for what should be the continuation of “Thunderclouds” (Tapete/Gran Sol, 20), the ambrosia that the Norman gave us a little over two years ago as Louis Phillippe & The Night Mail, the last of the almost twenty albums that he has published to date, under his name or in collaboration with other artists. “My Favorite Part Of You”, “Boxing Clever”, “An Ordinary Girl”, “Le Voyageur”, “Wonderfull” or “I Can’t Own Her” (yes, the same one that Andy Partridge composed and recorded for the last masterpiece of Ecstasythat “Apple Venus Vol. 1” from 1999, which curiously saw the light a year earlier in Phillippe’s version), will captivate any fan of Tindersticks, Everything But The Girl, Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, Stephen Sondheim, Michel Legrand o Boris Vian. In other words, to any lover of elegant, subtle, well-orchestrated pop, with its point of baroque style and its much of distinction, with its aura of timelessness and cosmopolitanism intact. A lot of level.