Various Artists Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited 3 stars out of 5 Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited is an antidote to the glut of tribute albums that play it safe by carbon-copying the original artist. Instead, the artists and assemblers on this album practically abandon Serge Gainsbourg on occasion. The source material in this case comes from a man who was saluted by former French president Francois Mitterand as "our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire." Words aren't without significance, then, so their translation into English is bound to raise some eyebrows.

Gainsbourg himself was an eyebrow-raiser, though for different reasons. His best-known song in the English-speaking world, "Je t'aime moi non plus," scandalized some listeners with its replication of female orgasm noises and its sexually ambiguous fence-straddling. Switched to English and propelled a few decades, it maintains a certain sex appeal -- thanks to heavy-lidded, bedroom-eyed delivery from Cat Power and Karen Elson (wife of Jack White) -- but doesn't come close to sounding risqué.

Not surprisingly, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker does one of the best interpretations, sounding something like a modern Leonard Cohen doing a vintage Burt Bacharach tune. He teams up with Kid Loco for "I Just Came to Tell You That I'm Going" (originally "Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais"). Cocker is, in some ways, a kindred spirit to Gainsbourg: gifted with words, plenty capable of leering, and armed with a wry wit.

One of the major attractions is a song from a muscled-up Portishead, who are not exactly the most prolific recording act in music. Sexy but also menacing, their "Requiem for Anna" is one of the few songs that brushes up against a number of moods and textures. And it ends with feedback!

There's a fair share of filler, especially as the album winds on. Low points include Tricky's homogenized "Au Revoir Emmanuelle," the played-out Brit-rock of The Rakes ("Just a Man With a Job") and the grating vocalizing and video game bleeping of Placebo's "The Ballad of Melody Nelson."

Even when there's a disconnect between the new versions and their originals, though -- and hopefully fans of Michael Stipe, Franz Ferdinand, The Kills, and other participants will be incited to check out those originals -- Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited is an interesting tribute because of its readiness to roll the dice. If Gainsbourg hadn't approved of all the end results, he surely would have approved of that spirit. - Adam McKibbin, The Red Alert

The mystique of Serge Gainsbourg still hangs in the air, like smoke from a Gitane, and 15 years after his death, the self proclaimed "cabbage-headed sex maniac" still exerts a phenomenal amount of charisma and influence over the pop world. Prime example -- Verve Forecast's timely tribute, Monsieur Gainsbourg: Revisited. It's a tribute album with a twist, though, as all of the songs have been meticulously translated into English, many for the first time. The sheer variety of the contributors here should give some indication of the universal influence the man still holds. From Jarvis Cocker to Marianne Faithfull, Michael Stipe to Marc Almond, Franz Ferdinand to Cat Power -- the lineup is nearly as diverse as the man's career was and, duly, the material covered here comes from nearly every corner of Gainsbourg's catalog. Unlike many collections of his work, Revisited doesn't dwell on his infamously racy selections (although there is the requisite "Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus" appearance, à la Cat Power and Karen Elson, and trip-hop's own "dirty old man" Tricky lays the musk on pretty thick for his sweaty take on "Goodbye Emmanuelle." Instead, the focus is more heavily on Gainsbourg's introspective, melancholy side (Michael Stipe's refreshing and impressively sincere reading of "L'Hotel Particullier" is a standout in that arena, as is Carla Bruni's "Those Little Things"). Alongside the melancholy, there is a good amount of just plain fun to be had as well. Faultline, Brian Molko, and Françoise Hardy's "Requiem for a Jerk" and Gonzales, Feist, and Dani's "Boomerang 2005" bring self-conscious chuckles and booty-shaking, respectively, into the mix, while the Rakes and Kills selections bring on the bravado. In a situation where any number of factors could have sent this project careening down the wrong tracks, Verve Forecast managed to wrangle it all in and offer a tribute that is reverent, representational, serious, and fun, all at the same time. ~ J. Scott McClintock, All Music Guide