Belinda Carlisle: ''Voila''

Belinda Carlisle's Voila, her first new album in a decade and her first sung entirely in French, is a sultry, soulful collection that delivers eleven classics from renowned French songsmiths including Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf. It may seem like a radical departure for the pop diva and much-loved Go-Go, but it's Carlisle's loving homage to the country that's been her spiritual home for more than a decade. People may be a bit shocked, Carlisle admits. Surprised that it's all French and at the range of the vocal styles and the songs I chose, but I had no interest in making another pop album. I knew if I was ever going to do another record, I wanted to do something challenging. As I became familiar with French music, I came to love it. It's deeper emotionally and a lot more poetic; the lyrics aren't as literal as they are in American pop. When I began deciphering 'Avec Le Temps,'I saw how it could mean a lot of different things. There are nuances to every phrase; the language is very rich.

Carlisle says the album is the culmination of a long investigation into French music, the result of years spent listening, reading, buying CDs and researching. I'd go to record stores and spend hours finding music I liked. I listen to French radio, where they play the classic chansons, and over the course of the last year and a half, I began selecting songs with strong melodies and lyrics I could relate to. The songs run the gamut from the breezy romanticism of Sous Le Ciel De Paris (Under Paris Skies), to the unsettling drama of Ne Me Quitte Pas (If You Go Away), one of Jacques Brel's most powerful expressions of lost love. This is an album. There are no obvious singles on it, Carlisle says. I'm not interested in getting back in the hamster wheel again. I don't want to be a rock chick anymore and I hate that term. I can't see myself jumping around on stage too much longer. I want to do projects like this so I can get older and retain a bit of my dignity. Piaf was still classy into her 70s, but in today's business, you have to be careful when you're my age, a female my age especially.

Carlisle chose producer John Reynolds (U2, Sinead O'Connor, Indigo Girls, Hothouse Flowers) for the project. The two worked closely with a musical dream team that included Brian Eno on keyboards, guitarist Fianchna O'Braonain (Hothouse Flowers,) the Irish button accordion player Sharon Shannon, Julian Wilson (Grand Drive) on piano, Hammond B-3, strings and keyboards and world music star Natacha Atlas (Transglobal Underground) on backing vocals.

We wanted to try everything, no holds barred,Carlisle says. Since this is not a pop project, we were free to experiment. We played with every song, trying all sorts of instrumentation and different styles of arranging. Everything clicked. The only definite idea I had was that I wanted to sing with an accordion. Other than that, everything was a grand experiment. There didn't seem to be any limits. Each song took on a life of its own. John (Reynolds) encouraged the musicians to come up with parts and contribute to the arrangements. In the past, I'd usually come in and sing and leave everything else to the producer. This time, I was in the studio every day, all day. It was a real collaboration with all involved. With the exception of Ne Me Quitte Pas, everything was easy. That songs so emotional and the lyric is so naked that it took a few months to get the arrangement right.

The creative energy Carlisle and Reynolds brought to the project is evident on every track. Carlisle's smoky vocals and the diverse arrangements imbue the songs with a simmering Gallic soul. Serge Gainsbourg?s ?Bonnie et Clyde gets a cinematic treatment full of atmospheric keyboards and ghostly sound effects; Francoise Hardy's Pourtant Tu M'aimes (I Still Love Him) gets recast as a new wave rocker; La Vie En Rose bounces along on a driving disco backbeat and Jezebel sounds like the twang-drenched theme song from a spaghetti western. Ne Me Quitte Pas and Avec Le Temps are closer to their original incarnations, wrenching emotional statements made more intense by Carlisle's understated delivery. I always felt I had a bit of the chanteuse inside me, Carlisle says. This album came out exactly the way I wanted it to. You don't have to know what's being said to know Avec Les Temps (With The Times)? is a devastating love song. When I heard that song the first time, it broke my heart. Carlisle's first venture into French music proves once again that good songs are universal - timeless expressions of the human soul that need no translation to work their exhilarating magic.

Since leaving the Go-Gos, Belinda Carlisle has reinvented herself as a polished adult pop singer. Heaven On Earth, her second solo album made her a worldwide pop star, with Heaven is a Place on Earth? hitting the #1 spot in countries all over the planet, while I Get Weak and Circle in the Sand? both went Top 10. Runaway Horses established Carlisle as a presence on the British and Australian music scenes and included the George Harrison collaboration Leave A Light On. Harrison didn't work with many people after his stint as a Beatle, and after his death, Olivia Harrison told Carlisle that he agreed to work on her album because he loved her voice. Her 1996 offering, A Woman And A Man, contained a collaboration with Brian Wilson and spawned three UK hits In Too Deep, Always Breaking My Heart and Love In The Key Of C. I sang backup on a few of Brian's solo albums, Carlisle recalls. When he came into the studio to work on my album and started layering up his vocal parts, it brought tears to my eyes. It was like watching Mozart at work. A Woman And A Man was a hit in Europe and England and Carlisle has maintained a strong fan base overseas ever since. I enjoy playing in Europe. The fans are more open to an artist reinventing herself than in the US. In America, I usually work with the Go-Gos, but I don't know how much longer that's going to go on. We enjoy getting together and still have a lot of energy, but, when you're pushing 50, you want to retain some of your dignity.

In 1999 A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was released and featured three new Carlisle tracks and sold 900,000 units in the UK alone. In 2003, Carlisle's solo US tour was a great commercial and critical success. She's currently making plans to take Voila on the road in early 2007. Doing a show with these songs and figuring out how to incorporate the back catalogue of my work is going to be a real challenge, but I haven't been challenged in years, so I'm looking forward to it. The album wasn't meant to be a commercial project, it was a labor of love and the process included a lot of great surprises for me so I can't wait to see where it all leads.