Rita Mitsouko-Rita Mitsouko (1984)


 

Artist: Rita Mitsouko


Label: Virgin

Format: CD

Catalog Number: 07777 869072 6

Year of Release: 1984

Country and Year of Edition: France 1987

Sell Price: $5.51

Sell Date: 9/17/24

Condition: VG+/VG+

Discogs Last Sold 5/16/24 NM/NM $5.99

Low: $1.11

Median: $6.08

Average: $6.89

High: $16.67

Current low price: $2.00

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 259

Have/Want: 4067/1997

Where Sold:  Ann Arbor, MI

Time It Took To Sell:  4 years

Where and When Bought:: from discarded CD collection

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+

Sad To See It Go: No

When this sold last week, I didn't even remember ever having it.  That is because I got it in a bag of CD's that my roommate was throwing out.  This one was actually a good discovery.  Rita Mitsouko is actually a  French BAND, not a person.  With later releases they became later known as Les Rita Mitsouko so as not to confuse people like me.

There seems to be very little to connect Les Rita Mitsouko to an American audience.  They last played a run of European dates in 2007, and setlist.fm has one US date in Miami back in 1988. Catherine Ringer has performed in Montreal as recently as 2023.   This particular album was strictly import only and eyeballing other releases, it looks like the other records followed suit.

This 1984 release was actually a fun mix of new wave with elements that make it more arty than poppy.  Sometimes vocalist Catherine Ringer sounds to me like Siouxie Sioux in French.  The multi-instrumentalist Fred Chichin utilizes the synthesizer in multiple ways.  On my favorite song "Amnesie" it sounds like a farfisa organ with a feel closer to garage rock. "Danse la Steppe" also has a 60's chiming keyboard sound almost like Love.  "Marcia Baila" takes on the Disco ooh-ooh's of "Let's All Chant" with more of a Salsa feel.  International experimentation seems to be the name of the game here.

Sometimes it helps to actually pay attention to what you have been ignoring.

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