Mark Daumail, Cocoon

Cocoon is a two-piece French band formed in 2006 by Mark Daumail and Morgane Imbeaud. ‘I wanted it to be a male-female duet. A duo like the The White Stripes are in rock — we wanted to be the equivalent in folk music’, Daumail says. Their songs are entirely sung in English. ‘French artists singing in English isn’t something new. It goes back to groups like Les Thugs and Syd Matters’.

Bon Iver / Flume
This is the best song of the last two years, hands down. The vocals, the sound, and the lyrics: ‘Sky is womb and she’s the moon’. Sheer genius!

Emily Jane White / The Demon
Emily Jane must have listened to Cat Power and Fiona Apple too much, but it made her write better songs than them, like this Demon.

Yeasayer / Wait For The Summer
Instant classic. Give me their dealer address!

Why? / The Vowels Pt.2
The most interesting production of 2008, it has ten thousand ideas per minute and is very inventive.

She & Him / This Is Not A Test
I usually don’t buy this kind of Feist-ish songs, but the sun got brighter since I started listening to this album every morning.

Hercules & Love Affair / Blind
So gay, so disco, but so good. Antony never sang so well. You’re gonna cry on the dancefloor.

Sarabeth Tucek / Hot Tears
I don’t know much about Sarabeth Tucek, but if she’s as pretty as the way she sings, I’ll marry her tomorrow.

Eddie Vedder / The Wolf
I wish I could play some organ, shouting ‘aaaaaah’ like him, and make everybody weep.