French wonder woman Jain returned this week with a new song. Hurrah! No, it’s not called Hurrah! It’s called Alright. But it’s better than just that.
On first listen Alright seems to be just a simple message of positivity to everyone: “Things gonna be alright, if love is around” Jain sings – it’s addictive and affecting, coming from a world where pop remains untainted. But once you take notice of the verse you’ll realise it’s a much more personal message to herself and an ex: “I got no time for you on board, I'm not angry with you boy, I just really want to move on.” Rooted in a joyful a tropical world-pop sound, Alright adds in a reggae like rhythm to make it as summery as a pina colada on the beach. If you've just come out of a relationship this is one for you to raise your head up high with. Jain is on the road throughout the summer. Alas there’s no UK date (it seems that unless you are Christine & The Queens the UK isn’t interested in French pop, which is a real shame) but the shows she's playing are billed as a warm up tour, so hopefully there’s more dates to come once her second album is released. Jain - Alright
By now the chances are that you’ve read an awful lot about Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran at Glastonbury. You’ll also have read far less about a French popstar qui est absolument parfait, named Jain, but trust me, she played Glastonbury as well. At first her booking on the Sonic stage looked a little out of place, Sonic mainly catering for dance heads, but within a few seconds of her starting up the booking made absolute sense. Less a dance party more a crazy gymnastic hands-in-the-air workout, Jain pulled punters into the venue with one of those ‘what is going on over there ?’ moments. I think by the end of her set the ground in the venue had lowered a couple of inches with all the bouncing on it. So now it’s your time to move your feet as Jain revisits a track from her album. Dynabeat is all about the dance of life: “Love it or hate it , but you have no other choice, you have to realise that we are all living on a beat.” The video, like all of Jain’s videos, is a little surreal, like a modern Magritte inside a TV screen. There’s plenty of detail and clever little effect pieces to keep you hooked. Oh, and the song? Well Jain is all about the hooks; she probably has a whole wardrobe full of them and she's got this one out for you today. A squelchy synthy neon-bubblegum tune to keep you going all night. Jain - Dynabeat (Video)
“Heads up for this time where fear is not a leader, where open mind is stronger, life is for lovers.” “It’s our differences that make the richness of our souls.” “Let’s sing for everybody now.” At a time when the world seems horribly divided it feels like French pop wonder Jain and her song Heads Up, taken from her debut album Zanaka, is just the tonic. A song of positivity and acceptance, it sits with bouncing joy alongside her other great singles such as Makeba and Come. Whilst Jain's already bagged a number 1 single in her homeland of France and a top 5 album both there and in Belgium, my country, the UK has yet to fully embrace her. However, it took us Brits a while to really get another unique and exciting French act - Christine & The Queens, so there’s still hope yet. Hope is the operative word here, because Heads Up brings a tale of hope and by rights we should all be on the rooftops singing and dancing to it. This new lyric video was released today, so if you haven’t heard of Jain yet, it’s time to get acquainted. Especially you United Kingdom. Jain - Heads Up (Lyric Video)
Over the last few days a number of friends and people on the world wide web that I don’t actually know but who are interested in this sort of thing have been asking me what my favourite gig of 2016 was. So for the sake of completeness and as a record to remind myself in future years I’ve listed my top 5 below in a nice simple, no waffle, just the data form. If you want to read a little bit more about my favourite gig, I’ve included the reasons why it was so unexpectedly brilliant in this post (click here) that I’ve already published. After this, it really is no more looking backwards and everything going forwards on Breaking More Waves. My Favourite 5 Gigs Of 2016 1. Adele – Glastonbury Festival 2. Christine & The Queens – Latitude Festival 3. Clare Maguire – St Pancras Old Church, London 4. Aurora – Concorde 2, Brighton 5. Jain – Great Escape Festival, Brighton
French pop has had a quite brilliant year hasn’t it? Christine & The Queens wowed a lot of people in the UK; of all the shows I’ve witnessed in 2017, the crowd reaction (at Latitude) was one of the most overwhelming - the applause just wouldn’t stop. Petite Meller put out a very good, if somewhat overlooked pop album and Jain, whilst still relatively under the radar in the UK was one of the surprise highlights of this year’s Great Escape festival, turning a motionless crowd into a hard-bouncing party of happiness. There’s some connections between all of these artists as well, particularly Meller and Jain, who both take musical influences, particularly rhythm, from far flung places and weave it into a pop format, as well as both putting a giraffe in their videos. You can see that giraffe (and a zebra) in Jain’s new video for single Makeba – her tribute to Miriam Makeba, the South African singer and human rights activist. Let’s be clear – I’m quite a lot in love with what Jain is doing. Her music makes me feel alive. If you want to fall in love as well, watch the video and then if you get the chance go and see her and her box of beats on Monday 5th at London’s Garage. Jain - Makeba (Video)
