CD reviews: Mick Harvey

The fourth instalment in Bad Seeds member Mick Harvey’s exploration of material by Serge Gainsbourg, Intoxicated Women largely focuses on the French composer’s duets of the 1960s, a period that included some fascinating musical dalliances, including with Brigitte Bardot.

Harvey does the originals proud, opening with a German-language rendition of Je T’aime (now Ich Liebe Dich), made  more smouldering by the husky vocals of chanteuse Andrea Schroeder.

He follows this with English translations that range from the deft and warm All Day Suckers, to the spare, nylon-strung guitar of Prévert’s Son, and winds up with the cinematic, angular Cargo Cult.

• Mick Harvey. Intoxicated Women. Mute. 

• Four stars (out of five)

Single download: Prévert’s Song
For those who like: Leonard Cohen

— Shane Gilchrist