Michel Gondry picks his 12 favourite albums
Most directors can only hope to have as good a visual thumbprint as Michel Gondry. Even though there is a certain sparseness to every music video he has worked on, Gondry’s aesthetic has always been about capturing the human aspects of a song rather than trying to pad out the rest of the visual image with needless filler that distracts from the music. Gondry has made a mint out of creating classic music videos, and his musical taste is about as radical as his approach to the camera.
When going through his favourite albums of all time, Gondry had first gone back to one of his first major success stories: Bjork. Having helmed many of her classic videos, Gondry picked her 1993 album Debut as a personal favourite… and it’s no big shocker why. Looking at her evolution, Björk did for the stereo image what Gondry did to the visual image, constantly pushing herself to move in different directions and always using different tools whenever she had the chance.
Outside of his professional experience with artists, Gondry is always looking for the heart behind many of his favourite artists, appreciating the kind of genuine passion that artists like Missy Elliott put into their craft. When singling out her song ‘I’m Not Perfect’, Gondry loved how vulnerable she could be in her music, telling Entertainment Weekly, “A lot of singers try to do that, but she’s so honest, warm, and genuine that it comes across really great.”
While there are a few records that gravitate towards the heavier side of rock and indie, like the punk band Willowz, Gondry also had a flair for all things country when picking up Willie Nelson’s Stardust. Compared to the authenticity behind Elliott, Nelson is genuine in the way he delivers any song, putting a certain pathos into originals and standards as if he just pulled them out of thin air while strumming his trademark guitar, ‘Trigger’.
Boasting other country favourites like Ray Charles, that sincere approach to rock music branched into Gondry’s love for Beck as well. After being the resident weirdo of the 1990s, Beck’s penchant for massive hooks was traded in for genuine heartache on albums like Sea Change, pouring out his heart about his broken marriage when Gondry was going through his own separation.
When it comes to rock and roll, though, Gondry prefers things on the more eccentric side of the genre. Going for the biggest names in new wave and art rock like XTC and Talking Heads, Gondry also tended to favour the more obscure aspects of every band he listened to. In a world dominated by lavish rock stars, having someone like David Byrne on top of the charts was just crazy enough an idea to actually work.
Even when referencing some of the other major groups he had worked with, like The White Stripes, Gondry appreciated the subtle aspects behind their sound, thinking that Meg White was the most important member of the band. Then again, all of those strange additions to the music are the vocabulary that Gondry knows all too well.
He may have gotten his start behind a camera instead of behind a recording booth, but Gondry’s approach to direction on projects like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is indebted to the kind of music he likes. It doesn’t always strike you as anything special at first, but the more you spend time with it, the more you realise that there is a treasure trove left to unpack.
Michel Gondry’s 12 favourite albums:
- Debut – Bjork
- This Is Not a Test! – Missy Elliott
- Fatherf****r – Peaches
- The Willowz – The Willowz
- I Play With My Piano – Marie-Noelle Gondry
- Stardust – Willie Nelson
- Black Sea – XTC
- Elephant – The White Stripes
- Remain in Light – Talking Heads
- Wish You Were Here Tonight – Ray Charles
- Sea Change – Beck
- Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll: The Best of Ian Dury – Ian Dury
