5:55 is the second album by French musician and actress Charlotte Gainsbourg. It is also her first album release in twenty years. Charlotte collaborated on the album with French duo Air, English musician Jarvis Cocker, Irish singer-songwriter Neil Hannon as well as Radiohead’s main producer Nigel Godrich. “The Songs That We Sing” and “5:55″ were released as singles. The album went platinum in France, selling over 300,000 copies. In order to be able to take her distance from her famous father and mother (Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin) the singer has decided to sing in English most of the album (leaving only one song in French, Tel Que Tu Es, meaning As You Are). Critics have been very positive in France, describing this effort as a total achievement from all points of view. Anglo-saxon critics have been more mixed, saying that Charlotte’s second album doesn’t sound different enough from her parents’ work, maybe because Charlotte’s voice is very similar to her mother’s.

Tracklisting:
1 5:55 (4:51) Arranged By [Strings], Conductor [Strings] – David Richard Campbell // Bass, Guitar [Acoustic & 12 String], Glockenspiel – Nicolas Godin // Drums – Tony Allen // Lyrics By – Jarvis Cocker, Jean-Benoît Dunckel, Nicolas Godin // Piano – Jean-Benoît Dunckel
2 AF607105 (4:30) Lyrics By – Jarvis Cocker // Synthesizer, Drums [Synth Drums] – Jean-Benoît Dunckel // Synthesizer, Drums [Synth Drums], Bass, Guitar [Electric], Glockenspiel – Nicolas Godin
3 The Operation (3:59) Drums [Synth Drums], Guitar [Electric], Bass – Nicolas Godin // Lyrics By – Jarvis Cocker // Piano, Synthesizer – Jean-Benoît Dunckel
4 Tel Que Tu Es (3:10) Arranged By [Strings], Conductor [Strings] – David Richard Campbell // Lyrics By – Jean-Benoît Dunckel, Nicolas Godin // Percussion, Guitar [Electric], Bass – Nicolas Godin // Piano – Jean-Benoît Dunckel
5 The Songs That We Sing (2:57) Acoustic Guitar – Neil Hannon // Arranged By [Strings] – Joby Talbot // Drums – Jeremy Stacey // Glockenspiel, Piano – Jean-Benoît Dunckel // Lyrics By – Jarvis Cocker, Neil Hannon // Melodica, Bass – Nicolas Godin // Strings – The Millennia Ensemble
6 Beauty Mark (3:07) Arranged By [Strings], Conductor [Strings] – David Richard Campbell // Drums [Monomachine], Tambourin, Bass, Acoustic Guitar – Nicolas Godin // Lyrics By – Jarvis Cocker, Jean-Benoît Dunckel, Neil Hannon, Nicolas Godin // Synthesizer [Moog], Piano, Synthesizer, Strings [Synth Strings], Vocals [Additional Chorus] – Jean-Benoît Dunckel
7 Little Monsters (3:46) Drums [Synth Drums], Glockenspiel, Bass, Synthesizer – Nicolas Godin // Lyrics By – Jarvis Cocker // Piano, Synthesizer – Jean-Benoît Dunckel
8 Jamais (4:37) Acoustic Guitar, Bass – Nicolas Godin // Arranged By [Strings], Conductor [Strings] – David Richard Campbell // Drums – Jeremy Stacey // Lyrics By – Jarvis Cocker // Piano, Synthesizer, Vibraphone – Jean-Benoît Dunckel
9 Night-Time Intermission (2:44) Arranged By [Strings], Conductor [Strings] – David Richard Campbell // Drums – Tony Allen // Guitar – Nicolas Godin // Piano – Jean-Benoît Dunckel // Written By – Jarvis Cocker, Charlotte Gainsbourg
10 Everything I Cannot See (5:46) Arranged By [Strings], Conductor [Strings] – David Richard Campbell // Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Guitar [Electric] – Nicolas Godin // Drums – Jeremy Stacey // Lyrics By – Jarvis Cocker // Piano, Organ – Jean-Benoît Dunckel
11 Morning Song (3:06) Acoustic Guitar – Nicolas Godin // Lyrics By – Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jarvis Cocker // Vibraphone, Piano, Synthesizer – Jean-Benoît Dunckel

Label: Because Music, Atlantic Records
Catalog#: 5051011-5911-2-9, 5051011-5911-2-9
Format: CD
Country: France, UK
Credits: Composed By, Performer [Music Played By] – AIR // Engineer – Dan Grech-Marguerat, Darrell Thorp, Florian Lagatta // Mastered By – Bob Ludwig // Producer, Mixed By – Nigel Godrich
Genres: adult pop / electro pop
Links: Official Website || Official Website (As Singer) || @MySpace || @Last.FM || @Wikipedia || @Discogs
Bitrate: VBR
Download: @InfoStore [UA-IX] || @RapidShare
Grade: 10/10

Ждал контекста ;) Услышал впервые в «Атмосфере», но нормально воспринять помешало неадекватное настроение, с которым я почему-то последнее время слушаю эту программу :( Знатоки уже смекнули, что контекст пришёл в виде «Науки сна» ;) Особым любителем Air или Pulp я никогда не был, но отношусь к этим людям с уважением. К данному альбому первые делали музыку, лидер вторых кропал тексты. И то и другое получилось очень хорошо. Плюс, как я уже говорил, трогательный голос Шарлоты и вот. Хотя здесь впечатлившие меня интонации проявляются только в удивительно проникновенной, как по мне, «Everything I Cannot See». А так всё больше бархатистые нашёптывания на ушко ;)

(А ещё я с удивлением узнал вот это: Gainsbourg performed the spoken introduction (a sample from The Cement Garden) on Madonna’s 2001 single “What It Feels Like for a Girl”. She says, “Girls can wear jeans, cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots, ’cause it’s okay to be a boy, but for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, because you think that being a girl is degrading, but secretly, you’d love to know what it’s like, wouldn’t you? What it feels like for a girl.”)

“now i can really
mess around with your heart
and fill it to the brim with broken dreams

our love goes under the knife
two lives may be saved”

***

“i remember i was just another monster without life
’til the day you came
dirty creatures, tiny animals that crawl towards the light
don’t you ever change

little monsters that rule the world
you don’t know what you’re really saying
stop before someone ends up getting hurt
can’t you see that we’re only playing”

***

“you’re my life, you’re my hope
you’re the chain, you’re the rope
you’re my god, you’re my hell
you’re the sky, you’re myself
you’re the reason i’m living
you’re all that i have to discover

you’re the rain, you’re the stars
you’re so near, you’re so far
you’re my friend, you’re my foe
you’re the miles left to go
you are everything i ever wanted
and you are my lover”

***

“i saw somebody who
reminded me of you
before you got afraid
i wish that you could have stayed that way

i saw a little girl
i stopped and smiled at her
she screamed and ran away
it happens to me more and more these days

and these songs that you sing
do they mean anything
to the people you’re singing them to
people like you

i saw a photograph
a woman in a bath
of hundred-dollar bills
if the cold doesn’t kill her money will

i read a magazine
it said by seventeen
your life is at an end
i am dead and i’m perfectly content

and these songs that i sing
do they mean anything
to the people i’m singing them to
people like you

and these songs that we sing
do they mean anything
to the people we’re singing them to

tonight they do”