"reveals a musician that had yet to fully absorb her influences and make them her own." Russell Warfield of Drowned in Sound felt that "her first record sticks out like a sore thumb" and described it as "the product of a patriarchal music industry", as Hardy was untrusted to shape her own material. Considered an artistic growth, her sophomore record Le premier bonheur du jour incorporated more complex instrumentation and lyricism, including electric organs and "weeping" string arrangements. It includes compositions inspired by jazz music, as well as American girl groups such as the Crystals and the Ronettes. Despite their enduring popularity, Hardy is highly critical of her first releases. She told Clash in 2018: "From very early on I felt very frustrated because I wanted to have beautiful electric guitars like those of the Shadows in the sixties or those of Cigarettes After Sex now. Instead, I had very bad French musicians and a terribly bad musical production. My albums began to improve when I went to London to record them. My first songs were not very interesting either." Beginning in the mid-1960s, her music became lusher and richer, as she eschewed the poor quality of French studios in 1964 to go record in London with arranger Charles Blackwell, who allowed her to "reach new levels of sophistication." She told The Guardian in 2018: "I was happy from that moment. I was free to make another kind of music, not this mechanical music I had been trapped in." Hardy's music during the second half of the decade incorporated influences from the British Invasion pop phenomenon and "a strong comeback of the traditional values of French chanson, neither yé-yé nor 'Left Bank', but rather romantic." Released that year, Mon amie la rose showcased a growing complexity in her music, with stronger vocals and increased experimentation in song structure. Her most varied album yet, it incorporated influences of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound technique, as well as Italian composer Ennio Morricone. Her 1965 and 1966 output showcased a stylistic maturation, with productions that "moved from the tinny sound of yeh-yeh pop into a fuller brand of rock arrangements." The overall sound of her follow-up L'amitié is considerably more expansive. According to Pitchfork's Hazel Cills: "It wasn’t until her fifth record La maison où j'ai grandi that Hardy grew into a more grown-up, baroque sound, one that matched the depth of her