Jacques Brel - Enregistrement Public à l'Olympia 1964 (1964)

I have this mental block when it comes to music that isn't in my native language. It feels wrong to criticize it because the emotion of the lyrics aren't translating to my brain. The singer becomes just another instrument in my brain. I know I typically say I don't give a shit about what the singer is singing, but it's different when a song has lyrics I have no hope of understanding.

This album (called Olympia 64 for short) is entirely sung in French (I think). Jacques Brel's voice is lovely, but he might as well be singing, "La-la-la-la-la," as far as my brain is concerned. He also heavily enunciates the guttural sounds of his languages, such as rolling his R's or sharply hitting the 'zh' sounds. That might be how French is supposed to be pronounced but it's annoying on this album. The accompanying orchestra isn't suited to my tastes- it prominently features an accordion. With one real exception, the opener "Amsterdam", I felt the album was a bit soft.

If you can understand French and like traditional European orchestral music maybe you'd like it. For me, 2 stars.