1966's Baby Pop is arguably French pop singer France Gall's finest album, though Les Sucettes, from earlier that year, and 1968 do give it a run for its money. A key album from the entire French ye-ye scene, it stacks up well when juxtaposed with the self-titled offerings from peers Françoise Hardy and Sylvie Vartan, both released the same year. Baby Pop is a more mature and diverse offering than the collection of previously issued bubblegum singles and albums that had established Gall as a hitmaker earlier in the decade. It was even a giant step up from the previous year's acclaimed best-seller, Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son, whose title track won the Eurovision Song Contest.
Producer Denis Bourgeois and arranger Alain Goraguer rein in the session musicians (who include drummer Pierre Michelot) on this 12-song date. An obvious student of the American beat and pop scenes, the charts at times recall Burt Bacharach's work with Dionne Warwick; at others, Lou Adler's Mamas & the Papas recordings and Tony Hatch's singles with Petula Clark. It was a risky move for both men. Gall wasn't the strongest of singers. She possessed a limited range and limpid alto. The title-track single, one of three penned by Serge Gainsbourg, boasts a majestic horn chart, a discotheque beat, and female backing chorus in a strange combination of girl group pop and early psychedelia. Just a year later, no less than George Martin and the Beatles would reference Goraguer's charts and adapt them to their own ends. The Latin-tinged "Faut-Il Que Je T'Aime," by Maurice Vidalin and Jacques Datin, weds mutant Farfisa-driven chanson and theater music to Baroque strings and harpsichord. "Temps de la Rentrée" is only 1:35, but it' a tough rave-up pre-psych rocker, while Gainsbourg's "Attends Ou Va-T'en" brings cabaret and jazz to ye-ye. There are some strange offerings, too: "L'Amerique" contains an arrangement so cheesy, it could have adorned a single by Maurice Chevalier from decades earlier. (It was penned by Guy Magenta and Eddy Marnay, two songwriters who actually worked with the Chevalier.) "Cet Air Là," penned by France's father Roger Gall and Goraguer specifically for her, married a dance-club beat and a pop melody to early psychedelia. The sublime rocker "Nous ne Sommes pas des Anges," penned by Gainsbourg, juxtaposed "Leader of the Pack"-styled girl group beat pop with dramatic chanson. The bongo-driven jazz ye-ye of "Deux Oiseaux" by Gall's father (complete with flute solos, syncopated drumming, and scat singing) is a set highlight that shows Gall's willingness to experiment, as well as an uncharacteristic display of vocal control. As a whole, Baby Pop is among the finest and most wide-ranging pop of the era; further, it remains one of Gall's finest albums.
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