Marcy from the rather wonderful Lost in Your Inbox has inspired me to write a post I’ve been intending to scribble out for a wee while now; one about an exotic visitor I used to have, and hope I still do. Back when this site was on Blogger I used to have an almost daily visit from someone in French Polynesia. Now that Song, by Toad has moved to WordPress I don’t get anything like the quality of stats I used to, so I have no idea if my Polynesian friend is still a regular visitor here. If you are: hello there, delighted to have you with us, and do say hi in the comments section.

Anyhow, as Mrs. Toad observed, this is a small example of one of my favourite things about the information age. Only very recently, it would have been unimaginable for someone living on an island that is part of a remote Pacific archipelago to maintain any sort of an active, everyday interest in obscure indie music, but now it is not just possible, but really rather easy. I sort of like that. Why someone living in a tropical island paradise would want to waste part of his day reading my dithering cynicism is rather beyond me, but it’s a nice thought.

So in honour of my visitor from French Polynesia I am going to post some French songs. Or some with bits of French in them. The poor bastard may be utterly sick of the sound of the French language by now, so this might be irritating as hell, but it seemed sort of appropriate.

Blur w. Francoise Hardy – To the End One of the best b-sides of all time by anyone, ever.
The Wedding Present – Pourquoi Est-tu Devenue Si Raisonnable? Splendidly shit French accent from Mr. Gedge.
Francoiz Breut – Si Tu Disais Excellent, sultry French girl indie.
Calexico – Si Tu Disais An English version of the same song. Brilliant.
Calexico – The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Marianne Dissard – Merci de Rien du Tout Marianne’s lovely voice sang the French part in The Ballad of Cable Hogue. Her solo stuff is truly lovely stuff.