Closely associated with
Nouvelle Vague and
Villeneuve,
Mélanie Pain is a French singer who made her solo album debut in 2009 with
My Name. Hailing from Aix-en-Provence, France, she cites influences that include
Sonic Youth,
the Smiths,
Pixies,
PJ Harvey, and
Nick Drake. She first made a name for herself as a vocalist on the
M83 album
Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (2003), singing on the songs "Run Into Flowers," "0078h," and "Beauties Can Die." The following year she was featured on
Nouvelle Vague (2004), the eponymous album debut by the '80s revival group led by
Marc Collin and
Olivier Libaux on which she sang cover versions of
P.I.L.'s "This Is Not a Love Song" and
the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks." Around this same time, she collaborated with Benoît de Villeneuve on his full-length debut as
Villeneuve, First Date (2005), on which she sang most of the album's songs. Her collaborations continued in subsequent years, most notably her closer association with
Nouvelle Vague. On the group's second album,
Bande à Part (2006), she sang five songs, among them cover versions of
Blondie's "Heart of Glass" and
New Order's "Blue Monday," and on their third album, 3 (2009), she sang a version of
Depeche Mode's "Master and Servant" alongside Martin Gore and a version of
Echo & the Bunnymen's "All My Colours" alongside
Ian McCulloch. Upon signing to the Parisian label Cinq 7,
Pain made her full-length solo debut in 2009 with
My Name, an album of folk-pop chansons sung in both English and French, most of them co-written by
Villeneuve. "Ignore-moi" was released as a promotional single. ~ Jason Birchmeier