Histoire De Melody Nelson (studio album) by Serge Gainsbourg

I think that it’s worth saying about this album is that it’s very much a collaboration between gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier who co wrote some of the album and was the musical director for the orchestration on the album. Together they produced something of real beauty

good album this one but i think it doesnt deserve to be top 100 of the 70´s

actually pretty incredible heavy guitar influenced French

From JoaoMoreira 07/09/2020 00:47

Good solid backing band with a really interesting guitar player.
The string arrangements are really powerful.
Lots of tension :)
Gainsbourg, a big influence on many artists.

From Boltzmann 03/15/2020 11:40

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An absolute masterpiece and the greatest French album by the greatest French artist.

From Brad1770 02/24/2018 08:22

What an awesome surprise this album was , never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would love a 47yo French Spoken album as much as I did

I jumped on line and read the lyrics in English , the story of this album goes something like this: the main protagonist whilst driving a Rolls Royce has an accident with a 15yo girl called Melody Nelson , soon a relationship develops and at one stage the two end up in a Hotel where things have obviously turned sexual. Unfortunately Melody Nelson dies in a plane crash and the protagonist is left heart broken and empty

This album sparkles with sexy vocals , lush orchestral moments , choirs and moody guitars . Its all over in 7 tracks and I was left wanting more

Stunning

90/100

To be honest I was a little disappointed by this album. Due to it's reputation I was expecting a lot more. It's basically an album of narration and considering I don't speak French it certainly lowers the impact. Don't get me wrong, I like the album, it's just I wanted to like it more than I currently do. Still, in time, who knows?

From colonelchibbers 05/20/2015 05:05

He's still aging on my tongue, like a fine French wine, but he certainly seems like he was one of the most interesting foreign pop stars out there just on the merit of this album.

From calsper 04/12/2015 02:14

Trip-hop most certainly trace its roots back to the early 70's. Serge Gainsbourg's "Histoire de Melody Nelson" is a daring and controversial concept album that I am extremely fond of.

The soundscape, jam, and dynamics of the simple instrumental setup is sharply contrasted with the flamboyant symphonic arrangements that carries the dynamic of this album to an unprecedented level of freely associative instrumentation.

The story in French is in spoken words and is circling around the story of the androgynous person of Melody Nelson that Gainsbourg bumps into and falls in love with - creepy.

What I like most about this album, though, is the stylistic consistency and similarity throughout the album that gives it qualities resemblant of a single extended musical piece with a number of progressions.

"Histoire de Melody Nelson"'s mix of freewheeling guitar, funk style bass, spoken word vocals and lush, deep orchestrated string music together makes this one of my favorite albums.