Charlotte Gainsbourg: 5:55

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Alissa Quart wrote in New York: "Her politesse was taught to her by Serge Gainsbourg, her Pop Rabelais of a father, who, in spite of his often risqué music and feral grooming, was 'very, very strict about manners. When I was a child, there was no talking at the table, or putting your hands on the table,' she says, in her disturbingly lovely voice, that of a drowsy British schoolgirl on the brink of losing her innocence in an unsavory fashion. … The CD 5:55 is the result of her return to music after a long absence. It’s a peculiar but lovely album whose songs tell of erotically anguished late nights and early mornings. There’s a storytelling quality to it, which Gainsbourg says was influenced by Serge’s 'thing of talking and singing' at the same time. She wanted her music — whispery electro pop — to be 'intimiste,' the tracks to sound like dreams. The project began when Gainsbourg met Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel from Air, the French band that made French pop seem stylish again. … Jarvis Cocker, who led the darkly witty British band Pulp, was called in to play lyrics doctor, along with the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon" (4/23/07).