Le Meilleur De Francoise Hardy CD

18 track collection of Hardy's years recording for the Vogue label.

As single-disc Françoise Hardy compilations go, this is one of the worst options, for several reasons. Though at a glance its scope might appear wide -- the 18 tracks dating from as early as 1962 and as late as 1989 -- in fact, its range is relatively small, with 11 of the songs dating from 1962-1966, the other seven from 1981-1989, and nothing at all falling outside of those years. If you're going to have a Hardy compilation, better that it focus on one specific decade or narrow year range, since her music in the 1960s was quite different in style (and quality) from her 1980s output. And, most importantly, the 1980s tracks here are far worse than her fine 1960s work (or, for that matter, her 1970s or 1990s work), as in that decade she was just another Europop singer, with anonymous material that wasn't even sung nearly as well as most of her other releases. True, the 1962-1966 cuts do include good-to-great vintage tracks, among them some of her greatest songs, such as "Le Temps de L'Amour," "Le Premier Bonheur du Jour," "Pourtant Tu M'Aimes," "Mon Amie la Rose," "Le Temps Des Souvenirs," and "Je Ne Suis la Pour Personne." But those are easily available on numerous other compilations, and, frankly, by the time of this 2000 release, there were too many damned Françoise Hardy compilations clogging up the market anyway, most of them recycling the same '60s material that occupies the majority of this disc. It's true that this does have a particularly ravishing picture of her on the cover, but if that's your main criteria for what Hardy CD to buy, you probably don't pay too much attention to reviews like this anyway. ~ Richie Unterberger

Personnel: Françoise Hardy (vocals).