Do we need a fourth volume of Mick Harvey’s Serge Gainsbourg covers? Yes, surprisingly. Intoxicated Women comes out of the same sessions that produced the recent Delirium Tremens, which arrived two decades after his previous Gainsbourg set. This one, however, focuses on duets and songs for female leads; it’s jauntier, if still jaundiced, and contains some of Gainsbourg’s best compositions, including “Poupee De Cire, Poupee De Son” and “Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus.” Harvey, formerly of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds, often cedes the vocals to one of his guests, content to lead the small band from behind the piano or organ. Harvey’s female foils such as Xanthe Waite, Andrea Schroeder and Jess Ribeiro can’t quite match Gainsbourg’s Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin for sexual tension, but the general tenor of Intoxicated Women, in Harvey’s translations of Gainsbourg’s French lyrics, is aptly dissolute, louche and subversive.
—Steve Klinge
