What’s old is Nouvelle

Someone once warned, “Don’t listen to the music of your youth, it will make you old.” Nouvelle Vague might beg to differ.

“When the first album was released in 2004, it happened to be very successful with a very young audience,” says Olivier Libaux, co-leader of the French troupe, which just isued its third album of ’80s hits with a smoky boulevardier twist.

“Originally, we thought people more our age would be listening,” the 45-year-old says. “But the young audience gave us energy.”

The band gained more than neo new wavers as fans, though. Simply titled “3,”the new disc features Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore, Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch, and other musical heroes from MTV’s first years, dueting on their own songs.

“We were a small cover band and now we are able to collaborate with these very important people,” Libaux says incredulously. “We were fans when we were teenagers. We are too old now to be fans. But when I consider, as a musician and producer that I am able to work with someone like Martin Gore, it’s really gratifying.”

Just Can’t Get Enough

Nouvelle Vague rode the new wave of new wave for more than half a decade, but how far can they take it?

“The thing is, we have toured so much that the live show is now very good, very entertaining,” says Libaux. “We have more and more people coming to the shows, so we have the idea that we still have pleasure and things to do with Nouvelle Vague. We still have some ideas for one or two more albums. So, we don’t know what will happen. I can’t see us stopping. Maybe it will happen one day, but we go with the flow.”

Nouvelle Vague
With Clare and The Reasons
Friday, 7:30 p.m.
World Cafe Live
3025 Walnut St., Philadelphia
$29-$39, all ages, 215-222-1400
www.worldcafelive.com

Sunday, 7:30 p.m.
Somerville Theatre
55 Davis Square, Somerville
MBTA: Red Line to Davis
$24, all ages, 617-625-5700
www.vendini.com