July 26-27, 2025

This weekend's albums are actually a Jacques Brel grab bag, inspired by a recent deep dive into the Google Doodle archives and finding an old one dedicated to him. If you're overwhelmed by his work (it's both intense and quite extensive), there was a good write-up about chansons from the old version of The A.V. Club that I recommend reading to help (it's why I chose the first album here as my start).

The audio is as follows:

• The first one was my introduction to his songs, the compliation Infiniment (2003).

• The second is the original 1968 cast recording of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (don't bother with the movie...).

• The third is a good playlist collecting various performers doing their own versions of his work (usually off of the show's translations). My personal favorite is the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's version of "Next" but my favorite overall not included is Nina Simone's take on "Ne me quitte pas".

The featured image is from Camille Brodard. Yes, it's super corny and very much an idea from someone who's not been to Paris or France (technically I have but I don't count going as a baby) yet I always somehow mentally land on people smoking Gauloises at brasseries and bistros whenever I hear Brel singing.

Currently, I'm on another Summer Sabbatical for about a week and a half longer and will just be only posting slim journal entries until I'm back. Enjoy the dog days of summer and see you all then. - AB 7/26/25