Francoise Hardy

Francoise Hardy greeted the 1980s like most established music stars -- she held on to 1979 for dear life. Still, Hardy's second set with composer/producer Gabriel Yared, Gin Tonic, is continental soft rock of the highest order. There is some disco here, some jazzy Rhodes keyboard work and plenty of the kind of downcast ballads that have always been Hardy's bread and butter. If much of Yared's music sounds like outtakes from arty soft-core soundtracks, remember that film work would soon dominate his career.