Birthday Party alumnus Mick Harvey is one of those red wine and pin- striped suit types whose brooding intelligence and fierce good looks should have made him more of a star on this continent. Possessed with a golden, pitch- perfect voice and a Sinatra- esque sense of style, he exudes the air of someone who exists in the world of the glamorously downtrodden.

It's an image that seems appropriate when approaching the material of French pop crooner Serge Gainsbourg. And for one album, 1995's Intoxicated Man, it worked rather well. Harvey translated Gainsbourg's lyrics, while covering the Frenchman's famously decadent music note- for- note. The selection of songs was divine, as was the novelty of the whole affair. But there seems to be no rationale behind Pink Elephants other than to further pad Harvey's "I can do Gainsbourg" resume.

While the record has some of Gainsbourg's more famous songs, like "Comic Strip" and "I Love You... Nor Do I" (the titles have been translated), it also has a lot of filler. Unaided by the spectacular, reverb- drenched production of "Intoxicated Man", "Requiem..." and "To All The Lucky Elephants" sound flat, forced and ultimately pointless.

It might have been refreshing if, on this record, Harvey decided to take more liberty with the songs, having so successfully proven himself as a cover artist in the past. But what's done is done. One can only hope that Mick returns to his own material and stops with all this tribute nonsense.

-Samir Khan