Michel Polnareff's sporadic five-decade career in music has been fed partly by enigmatic absence and partly by his way with a plaintive melody. In the mid ‘60s, it began with songs about unattainable girls (“La poupée qui fait non”, “Love Me Please Love Me”) and eventually moved on to odder things: a pedal-steel-and-bongos ode to flies (“La mouche”), a swaying waltz to manhood (“Je suis un homme”) and eventually a dabble with disco (“Coucou me revoilou”). The only things that remain constant are those mournful tunes, that pleading voice and a distinctive pair of sunglasses.