During his collaborations with then-lover Brigitte Bardot, Gainsbourg nurtured a near Warholian obsession with American iconography: Ford Mustangs (bang!), Coca-Cola, comic strips, and, of course, gangsters. Portraying himself as a cultural outlaw (which, in his most transgressive work, he undoubtedly was), Gainsbourg narrates the lives and deaths of the infamous bank robbers. For listeners who don't parlez français, it's one of Gainsbourg's most fascinating songs in that, from start to finish, it never really changes. Its acoustic foundation is miraculously filled out by a fat, creeping bass line, dizzy strings, and a bizarre hiccupping backing vocal, all of which turn simple strums into something hypnotizing.
(John Motley)