Aux Armes et Cætera

Serge Gainsbourg’s decision to record a reggae version of the French national anthem may have caused outrage back home (he received death threats after performing it on national television in 1979), but Aux Armes Et Cætera’s parent album proves his embrace of Jamaican music was much more than just an establishment-baiting provocation. Recording in Kingston with ace rhythm section Sly & Robbie and Bob Marley’s backing singers The I Threes, Serge reworked older material (La Javanaise, Marilou Reggae) and wrote a batch of new songs to suit his surroundings (the lilting Relax Baby Be Cool references the KKK, while Des Laids, Des Laids’ laidback groove carried an ode to his beloved bull terrier, Nana). The first major European artist to record a full reggae LP, Aux Armes Et Cætera is a world apart from genre bandwagon hopping, its dubby ricochets and low-slung skanks providing the perfect backdrop for Serge’s Gitanes-roughened growl.