sorrow and its complexities." Likewise, Warfield considered that it was the album in which "she really settles into her sound, giving us a glimpse of the performer we can still recognise as a 70-year-old". With Ma jeunesse fout le camp, her last 1960s album recorded in London, she "moved toward a more adult, sedate form of orchestrated pop balladry". It has been described as "her farewell to the yé-yé years". 1968—1974 Her return to French recording studios, 1968's Comment te dire adieu is more MOR-oriented than her previous releases. Richie Unterberger considered its music to be "perhaps even sadder and more sentimental than was the norm for Françoise". As the yé-yé era faded away following the May 68 protests, Hardy "smartly reinvented herself as an elusive folk rock jazz chanteuse" with her early 1970s releases. The singer looked for a more mature and less-pop oriented style in an effort to reflect her inner self to a greater extent. Described as "the first truly personal Françoise Hardy record", the 1971 album La question is regarded as an important turning point in her career, moving towards a less commercial sound with no apparent hooks. It is one of her "most sparsely produced efforts," with subdued and acoustic-flavored arrangements that feature guitar, touches of bass, and subtle orchestration. Through the work of Brazilian guitarist and arranger Tuca, the album incorporates marked influences of bossa nova music. Her vocals have been called "sultry" and "breathy", at times "[substituting] melodic humming in the place of singing, wordlessly articulating the emotional essence of the song." La question also marked the first time that Hardy had a part in choosing the string arrangements of her work. Following the poor commercial performance of La question, Hardy leaned towards a more folk and rock-influenced sound. Around this time, she became an admirer of then little-known English folk singer-songwriter Nick Drake and championed his work in interviews. She recalled: "For me, he didn't belong to a particularly British tradition: his style was quite different from that of The Beatles, the Stones and other groups that I was listening to a lot around this time. It is the soul which comes out of his songs that touched me deeply – romantic, poetic... but also the refined melodies. As well as the very individual timbre of his voice, which adds to the melancholy of the whole thing." According to Tom Pinnock: "There