Marc Collin, the Parisian composer who single-handedly changed the way we thought about Depeche Mode and Visage as Nouvelle Vague by daringly rearranging their songs with bossa nova beats and sultry chanteuses, is now chasing a very different ambition: to change the way we feel about 1980s soundtracks. From “Eye of the Tiger” to “Flashdance…What a Feeling,” Hollywood, Mon Amour strips away the dated bombast and overblown synthesizers, the shoulder pads and eyeliner, to reveal songs underneath that you could never even imagine existed.

Hollywood in the 1980s was the port of call for post-punk bands that had reached the mainstream. From Simple Minds to Blondie, the call up for a film soundtrack was the sign that you had hit the big leagues, and soon you too would be recording a slice of Giorgio Moroder pop hysteria, a scene where a stripper with a perm was dancing for her life or Rocky Balboa was pounding the streets of Philadelphia.
Like a musical archaeologist, Collin painstakingly dug through the layers of garish production to find the forgotten bones of the song beneath. It may be hard to believe, but Hollywood, Mon Amour will turn songs you had forgotten into songs you will fall in love with. Where there was once a garish palette of squealing guitar solos and high-five vocals, Collin manages to find fragile colors and tender melancholy. Some of the coolest young female singers around were queuing up to work with Collin, too, including Skye from Morcheeba, Brazilian hipster Cibelle, and appropriately, Hollywood's own rock chick, Juliette Lewis.

DL: Hollywood, Mon Amour - Flashdance.....What A Feeling (Feat. Yael Naim)