CD Reviews

Jill Aigrot

Words of Love | LML Music

By JEFFREY GANTZ | March 4, 2008

2.5 Stars

Is Jil Aigrot, as the publicity buzz would have it, “the voice of Piaf in La vie en rose [original title La môme],” the Olivier Dahan–directed Edith Piaf bio-pic whose star, Marion Cotillard, just won the Best Actress Oscar? Yes and no. The better-known songs you hear in La môme — notably “Non je ne regrette rien” — are taken from Piaf recordings. Where there was not a usable recording of a Piaf song — notably early on, when she’s singing on the street and auditioning for Louis Leplée — Aigrot fills in. This is not a La môme soundtrack, but it is an album of Piaf songs (including “Les flonflons du bal,” “La goulante du pauvre Jean,” and “Non je ne regrette rien” but not “Padam” or “Milord” or “Sous le ciel de Paris” or “La vie en rose”), backed by accordion and piano and sung in a voice much like Piaf’s but sweeter and less guttural, with less of the gutter. Enjoyable, but it’s not as if the real thing weren’t available. There’s no CD booklet, and in her acknowledgments, Aigrot thanks Olivier Gahan. Tant pis.

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