81. Les Rita Mitsouko – C'est Comme Ça

It’s hard to even know how I came to this song, with it’s blend of high camp (they were pals of Jean-Paul Gaultier, obviously), arch vocals and keen riffs, being as it’s French and all. I have to assume it was Rage, but how they found it is beyond me. But I do remember being entranced and waiting until the end for the credits, and then hassling someone at Bracks Records (“yeah, Lay Reeta Mitsooko. No, is spelled Les, like my uncle…”) in the city until they got a copy of the CD in for me.

They were the band that should have played in The Fifth Element, basically, and how crappy that the guitarist died and brought the band to an early end. But it was one of those songs I have tucked away in my head, spurting forth every so often to entertain me and send me rushing off to YouTube, but I never really thought they were, you know, real.

Until earlier this year, that is, at some race or other when it came on and Alexa started singing along with the lyrics, as though it was a real song that existed in the real world, rather than an obviously imagined song, misheard and half-remembered when I was drunk and falling asleep on the lounge. But it turns out they were real, they were huge in France, and they are singing an actual language instead of just making really cool noises.

Sometimes I forget that Alexa is French. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but it is surprising.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYYotVPXcFE