I Want It To Sound Like Silver, I Want It To Sound Like Gold

For all that I always think that Elliott Smith was my last music crush, an artist I heard and suddenly just had to own everything by, it’s not the truth. No, that title belongs rightly to French vocalist extraordinaire Camille; a woman whom finally made Bobby McFerrin leave my mind when someone talked about making music without any instruments (Even if, as you can see above, her band will happily accompany her on their instruments, when necessary).

“Ta Douleur” is the song that made me fall in love with her, and to this day, I couldn’t really tell you why; there’s something about the way the song kind of falls apart early on, and then gets brought back together as she continues to sing, something about the sound of her voice, the playfulness of it and the tenderness of the sentiment (The chorus, translated, roughly turns into “Let me take away your pain,”), and the way it builds into a ridiculous, wonderful climax… Something that “Cats And Dogs,” maybe one of the most earwormy songs of recent years, also does, in its own insane way:

Although, when it comes to insane, and playful, I’m not sure you can best this (Feel free to skip to 2:23, the real start of the song):

Camille, then: Slightly crazy, full of heart, not what you’d expect, and all the better for it. Playful and a nice reminder of why things that shouldn’t work or make sense are sometimes the best things of all.