Novice (album)


Novice is the seventh studio album by French rocker Alain Bashung, issued in 1989 on Barclay Records.

Production

The songwriting is split between Boris Bergman, marking is last collaboration with Bashung, and Jean Fauque who would go on to write his four subsequent albums. Bashung said about the album that it was a sequel of sort to his experiments on Play blessures. The album has a dark sound, and did not sell very well. One of the song, "By Proxy", is one of the very few original written entirely in English by Bashung.
The song "Alcaline" is a pun on French pop singer Christophe's song "Aline". In 2011, Christophe covered the song for the tribute album Tels Alain Bashung.

Reception

In a review that was featured in the compilation OpticalSound 3, one reviewer praised Novice as the only Bashung album other than Play blessures that they enjoyed all the way through. Academic Jean Frédéric Hennuy compared the lyrics of "Pyromanes" and "Légère éclaircie" with those of Nick Cave.

Personnel

Musicians

Production