Mick Harvey Releases ‘Delirum Tremens’
Mick Harvey has unveiled the video for “Deadly Tedium,” his translation of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Ce Mortel Ennui.” “Deadly Tedium” is taken from Mick Harvey’s latest album of Serge Gainsbourg translations, Delirium Tremens, out now on Mute.
Says Mick Harvey, “The song ‘Deadly Tedium’ (Ce Mortel Ennui) was always on my radar as a possibility to translate. Being a kind of “anti” love song it’s typical of the more perverse aspects of Gainsbourg’s writing and atypical of songs about the breakdown of love and relationships and is loaded with dry, black humour.”
Watch the video, directed by Lyndelle-Jayne Spruyt, HERE.
‘Delirium Tremens’ also got the full treatment in Pitchfork and a great score: read the review
Delirium Tremens is the third volume of Mick Harvey’s Serge Gainsbourg translations and follows the recent reissue of the first two volumes – Intoxicated Man and Pink Elephants – as a double album in 2014. Following the reissue, Harvey began playing select shows in Australia and Europe (including shows at Primavera and London’s Union Chapel) and the enjoyment factor was so high it led inevitably to speculative discussions as to whether it was time to resume and expand the project.
Delirium Tremens brings us another wide cross-section of Gainsbourg material. From 1976’s “The Man With The Cabbage Head” (L’homme à Tête De Chou) all the way back to early songs such as “Deadly Tedium” (Ce Mortel Ennui) and “Coffee Colour” (Couleur Cafe) from the late 50s and early 60s. There is even a version of “SS C’est Bon” (Est-ce Est-ce Si Bon), from Gainsbourg’s controversial album Rock Around The Bunker, an album drenched in black humor and bad taste, coming as it does from a French man with Jewish ancestry.
In addition, Harvey presents a selection of five songs from the TV special “Anna” (starring Anna Karina) – including “Don’t Say A Thing” (Ne Dis Rien) – with the female parts here executed with enormous charm by Xanthe Waite who has been joining Harvey on his recent shows. The album is rounded out by a beautiful rendering of the late period Jane Birkin duet “The Decadance” (La Décadanse) with Harvey joined on vocals by his wife Katy Beale.
