10 Amazing Albums (That Are Under 30 Minutes)
5. Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire De Melody Nelson
As a concept album coming in at under half an hour, Serge Gainsbourg’s masterpiece is unusual. As a concept album detailing the illicit romance between Gainsbourg’s narrator and the titular 15 year old girl, it’s somewhere between daring and problematic.
But while the content is troubling (though less so if you don’t speak French), the music is downright astounding. Opener “Melody” is a slinky funk over which Gainsbourg sets out the story in his beguiling, sinister purr. It builds for a full five minutes, bass and guitar stabs, before bursting into fully orchestrated life.
He brings in Jane Birkin to voice Melody on the spookily seductive “Ballade De Melody Nelson”, and takes a quick diversion into chamber music on “Valse De Melody” before cycling through pop, rock, and many more genres besides.
Finally he returns to the funk motif on closer “Cargo Culte”. It’s an undeniably grubby journey that Gainsbourg guides us on here, but the atmosphere and storytelling of the album is extraordinary.