La Femme’s ‘Vagues‘ beautifully musically illustrates the touching rescue scene in first episode of Absolute Beginners
That hauntingly beautiful song playing at the end of the first episode of the new Polish drama series Absolute Beginners as Lena and Niko save Igor from drowning is a track from the award-winning French psych-punk rock band La Femme.
The song plays as Niko performs CPR on Igor, and he is eventually resuscitated and begins to breathe again.
It continues as Niko picks him up in a hug and tells him, “It’s okay, you’re safe. You’re safe”, as the music plays the first episode out.
When was La Femme’s ‘Vagues‘ released by the French band?
The indie French band was founded in 2010 by guitarist Sacha Got and keyboard player Marlon Magnée, and then joined by other musicians soon after.
After performing together for several years, the band released its first album in April, 2013.
La Femme’s ‘Vagues‘, however, was one of the tracks from the French group’s 17-track sophomore studio album Mystère, which came out on the Born Bad Records label in September, 2016.
It was an album that placed at #8 on the French Albums chart, #38 in Belgium and #74 in Switzerland, so not a massive hit for the indie group, but still solid rankings for a band whose psychedelic rock, new wave and sometimes surf rock isn’t likely to appeal to everyone.
And a band, I might add, that was awarded the French Ministry of Culture’s Victoires de la Musique award for Album Révélation of the Year in 2014 for their debut album Psycho Tropical Berlin.
La Femme’s ‘Vagues’, however, was a nice choice for that Absolute Beginners scene as its French title means ‘Waves‘ in English, and lyrics towards the end of the song seem to almost embody the high emotions of that scene:
The night settles and the moon is now on the horizon
At the edge of the ocean
And against all odds
You lift your eyes and you see
A star in line
(full translation at Lyrics Translate)
Listen to La Femme’s ‘Vagues‘ as heard during the Absolute Beginners rescue scene via Spotify, and in the video.
The song itself is over 13-minutes long, which you should listen to if you want its full and, honestly, quite lovely effect.