Louis Philippe: a beginner's guide

I fell in love with his music in 1996 when I stumbled drunkenly into the Jazz Cafe and saw an elegant and haughtily gallic figure poised over a grand piano, mumbling "zis song... inspired ... Guillame Appolinaire..." before launching into a breathtakingly melodramatic version of, -I think- "Bleuet" by Francis Poulenc. Followed by the silky pop naiivete of "Sunday Morning Camden Town", an epiphany for me in that miserable Britpop era.

I most of all love Louis because if he wants to record a vaguely Bossa-type tune he will insist on flying Brazilian guitarists to London and housing them at the Ritz rather than relying on indie bodgers/session men to try and copy their style. You can only boast that "you're keeping it real" without stigma if you bankrupt yourself and your record company in the process.

"Sunshine", the Louis Philippe website, is also undergoing a complete redesign and relaunch. Hopefully this will provide a much better resource for admirers of his work... FAQ, info on albums, news, MP3s, photos, email newsletter, message board, etc. At a later date it's possible that CDs could also be bought here.

The new URL will be: http://www.louisphilippe.co.uk - but it won't be up for at least a month. In the meantime, you can add yourself to the email newsletter list by going to: http://www.dannym.uklinux.net/bigshot/subscribe.php?id=1 and you'll get emailed when the new Sunshine site is up.

6 years later I'm motivated by the same curiousity that prompted this thread, except it's a song called "Fallen Snow." Wow

is that Alasdair MacLean upthread? must be.

An Unknown Spring, Philippe's latest (2007) release, has to be one of the most gorgeously produced records of the past few years. it's comparable, almost, to the last two Talk Talk albums, in the sense that you can imagine a bunch of session musicians spread throughout a cavernous studio, with mics exactingly arranged around them to capture just the right amount of sonic space between the instruments. thunderous drums that sound like they were recorded from halfway across the room, rich quiet-loud dynamics without a whiff of newfangled loudness-wars-type compression... that sort of thing.

musically, he's still fully infatuated with Smile-era Beach Boys — which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. the key change in the track "Lights Were Dancing on the Ceiling" rivals anything I've heard in a pop song, and "Wild-Eyed and Dishevelled" is the prettiest song Paddy McAloon never wrote.

yeah, that's him. i asked the same question a few months ago. he stopped posting in the early 00s.

i like louis philippe's an unknown spring a lot, tho sometimes it's too precious and fussy for my tastes. i loved his arrangement work on god save the clientele.

I have a higher tolerance than most for preciousness, so that part doesn't bother me.

If I can launch one sweeping criticism at his post-el Records output, it's that he doesn't turn out enough breezy bubblegum pop in the vein of "Smash Hit Wonder" or "You Mary You" or "Chocolate Soldiers." it seems like he's so afraid to be perceived as goofy or lightweight that he overemphasizes the stately, serious side of his music, occasionally to his detriment (this is why I'm not that fond of some of the songs on Azure, despite the awesome string arrangements). it may be that he's trying to distance himself from el's reputation as a style-over-substance, assembly-line pop affair, or it may be that he's just matured artistically. on the other hand, he doesn't seem to worry much about his music coming across as overly bourgeois/highbrow, something else el was lambasted for back in the day (as far as I've read; I wasn't there).

and now, a stately, serious song of his that I absolutely love:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhS_-IVd8J0