Pitchfork

Try as they might, musicians these days just can't do the elegantly sex-obsessed lech thing. In popular music today, Lil Wayne's compulsive horndog act is about as close as you're going to get. So clearly the world needs to rediscover the rumbling dirty-old-man freakiness of Serge Gainsbourg yet again. Light in the Attic will do all of us a big favor on March 24 when they reissue Gainsbourg's pedophilia-themed 1971 concept album Histoire De Melody Nelson. R. Kelly presumably has his copy on pre-order.

On Histoire De Melody Nelson, Gainsbourg married his lush, vaguely funky French rock to string and choral arrangements from the composer Jean-Claude Vannier. The album's overarching narrative is a loose retelling of Nabakov's Lolita. Actress Jane Birkin, a frequent Gainsbourg duet partner and also one of the many ridiculously beautiful women Gainsbourg got it on  with over the course of his life, plays the title character, while Gainsbourg plays the nasty old guy obsessed with her.

The album has never been properly U.S. release before, though it remains a touchstone. In 2006, Vannier performed the record straight through in London with guys like Jarvis Cocker and Gruff Rhys standing in for the late Gainsbourg.

The Light in the Attic folks remastered the album from the original master tapes, and they're issuing it on both CD and limited-edition, hand-numbered 180-gram vinyl. It'll include a 40-page printed booklet with an old English interview with Gainsbourg and liner notes from Andy Votel and former Pitchfork contributor Andy Beta. No bonus tracks, though. You'll take the original 28 minutes of music and like it.

Histoire De Melody Nelson:

01 Melody
02 La Ballade de Melody Nelson
03 La Valse do Melody
04 Ah! Melody
05 L' Hotel Particulier
06 En Melody
07 Cargo Culte