Serge Gainsbourg

Released in 1973 on the Philips label, Vu de l’extérieur is the ninth studio album by Serge Gainsbourg. Less orchestrated than his previous conceptual masterpieces like Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971), this album marks a return to a more raw, rock-influenced form, while retaining his unmistakable voice and provocative spirit. Behind its apparent playfulness lies a strange, subversive, and often disconcerting record, mixing scatology, tenderness, sexual obsession, and biting social satire.

Recorded after a major heart attack in early 1973, Vu de l’extérieur can be seen as a kind of artistic rebirth for Gainsbourg. The trauma seems to inform the entire album, which revolves around the human body — its most primal functions: sex, digestion, guts, urges, death. Yet it’s never crude for the sake of being crude; Gainsbourg turns the base into the poetic, the disgusting into the fascinating.

Musically, the album moves between psychedelic rock, French pop, jazz, and orchestral arrangements.

Upon its release, the album puzzled critics and divided listeners. Too weird for fans of traditional chanson, too tame for those expecting more blatant provocation. But in retrospect, Vu de l’extérieur stands as one of Gainsbourg’s most personal, ambiguous, and fascinating works. An "organic" record, visceral, humorous, and despairing one that still deserves to be heard with fresh ears today.