Francoise Hardy

The very natural cover photo of Francoise Hardy has little relation to the cold, synth-y album within. But time has been kind to this one, making its Gabriel Yared-produced material seem all the weirder and more original the further it gets from 1979. Hardy is miscast but in an eccentrically good way -- almost as if Juliette Binoche were placed in the center of a Grace Jones bio-pic. The jerky/groovy title track works, and "Brouillard Dans La Rue Corvisart" is a lovely duet with husband Jacques Dutronc. That said, Hardy sounds most like her old (despondent) self on the self-penned ballad "Perdu D'Avance."