blowupdoll

14 comment(s):

Banana Split was far and away her most popular hit. The original French single video (the one that got most airplay back in the day) is on YouTube. One of the best non-drinkable thing ever to come out of Belgium, right up there with the king of the divan Bertrand.

Banana Split is available on hellogina dot blogspot, which also links Lio's official site (which has samples of her latest album.) That version might be the Belgian one, the French one, which must have been issued afterwards, sounds a little new wavier (it's the one in the video.)

There are a few other pretty good Lio songs and one great hit from around the same time that was mostly instrumental, whose title I don't recall. Is that the B-side of Banana Split, "Teenager", or is it Amoureux Solitaires? I'll do some digging in Paris next week.

My favorite French pop single from that same era (other than the "serious", heavy, cool stuff like Taxi Girl's great "Cherchez le Garçon" maxi LP) was Diabolo Menthe, by Yves Simon. A beautiful balad that was the soundtrack to the namesake movie. If you can't find it, I'll put it up on my blog (which I'll get to starting sometimes this summer, eventually...)

cheers

By  Citadin, at 11 May, 2006 06:07  

i love banana split- love the way she sings 'hmmm!' it was posted ages ago on blowupdoll too!

i'll check out your recommendations and look forward to your blog.

By  mordi, at 11 May, 2006 09:10  

i've recently found myself getting obsessed too - she's great!

By  Anonymous, at 11 May, 2006 12:34  

just doing a bit of surfing about Diabolo Menthe and discovered that blowupdoll fave Coralie Clément is in it!

Looks like a great film - I'd love to see it.

By  mordi, at 11 May, 2006 16:24  

Watch the movie first then, mordi. It will be nice way to experience the song in its full beauty the first time. It became a hit after the movie came out IIRC. The soundtrack song is such a great match, along the lines of the Graduate and The Sound of Silence. Not that Diabolo Menthe is nearly as good as the Graduate, but the match and moods of the movie and soundtrack are equally perfect.

I will be sure to tell you when I start my music blog, I'm going to try to do some digging in France this summer for material, particularly at late 70s new wave. An old friend's brother was in a short-lived band with limited success called Dolce Vita. Two good singles. They made it to several TV shows but didn't stick.

In case you haven't seen it, La Boum with Sophie Marceau is another little gem of a teen coming out movie, along similar lines as Diabolo Menthe, with an even more famous sountrack song called Dreams (by Vladimir Cosma?) A little more syruppy than the Mint Syrup, but in a good way.

cheers.

By  Citadin, at 12 May, 2006 02:07  

Quite by coincidence (hadn't read this post) I have been quite obsessed by Lio's first few albums as well recently.
All of them have been re-released by the extremely cool Ze records.
I especially like the debut album which is still so very fresh sounding - her electro-pop take on "you go to my head" is one of my absolute favourite covers ever (and very similar in style to the great "par hasard" by Mikado - check that one out, you'll love it and the fabulous debut Antena album "camino dell sol").
On the later albums it's mainly the ballads that impress me ("Dallas" and "Barbie" of the Popmodel album being great examples, both of them being produced by John Cale, no less).

Actually Lio is back in action and her new album is not bad either, in a very laidback way.

Bartieboy

By  Anonymous, at 14 May, 2006 19:21  

her first album is brilliant! suite sixtine is also pretty good- i especially love 'my top twenty' and 'housewife of the year'.
amour toujours is a pretty poor album with just a few good songs. I liked pop model too but can can was a massive dissapointment.

i shall check out those other songs you mentioned!

By  mordi, at 14 May, 2006 21:18  

Isn't "can can" the one produced by Etienne Daho ? I didn't bother getting that one as everybody keeps telling me it is not very good (I remember not really liking Lio's version of "the boy from Ipanima" either which was the lead single of that album).
By the way, apparently Lio didn't get on with Etienne Daho at all, which might explain why the record didn't work out at all...

As for "amour toujour", I don't think it's that bad actually, there's some gorgeous ballads on there too, but I can understand people being disappointed by it if they really liked Lio's early electro pop tunes (which it has to be said, sound still so very modern to this day)

Bartieboy

By  Anonymous, at 15 May, 2006 21:24  

Man, forget about that 'La boum' stuff...

By  Anonymous, at 16 May, 2006 15:22  

Awwwww sh'es GREAT!! ^^

By  Anonymous, at 17 May, 2006 14:36  

a rare lio pic.

http://www.jpprocureur.be/img/lio.jpg?PHPSESSID=4efd7fced9292677082091ab78584a0d

By  Anonymous, at 18 May, 2006 12:24  

she looks great- he looks a bit creepy!

By  mordi, at 18 May, 2006 12:38  

I'm enjoying discovering lotsa new stuff here, thanks! This is a great song, I'm eager to hear more of Lio.

By  Anonymous, at 20 May, 2006 12:43  

This song has really grown on me. I liked it on first hearing, since then it has got better and better. Thanks for introducing me to Lio.

By  Anonymous, at 21 May, 2006 21:37  

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