Album review

Keren Ann

Not Going Anywhere

Paris 

31/10/2003 - 

Keren Ann and her songwriting accomplice Benjamin Biolay have been hailed as the new hopes of modern French chanson. But now, following hot on the heels of her last album, La disparition, Keren Ann branches out into English on Not Going Anywhere. Singing in the mother tongue she shares with her role model, Suzan Vega, Keren Ann continues her exploration of the soft folk melodies which made her name. While it hardly revolutionises the singer's hushed velvet style, Not Going Anywhere is a pleasant way of passing the time until the release of Keren Ann's next French album (due out in 2004).

Originally conceived as an Anglophone clone of La disparition (an album which Keren Ann had once toyed with calling The Disappearance), Not Going Anywhere does not mark a radical new change of direction for Keren Ann. The thirty-something songstress – who, together with her songwriting accomplice Benjamin Biolay, wrote most of the songs on Henri Salvador's award-winning comeback album, Chambre avec vue – grew up surrounded by English so a logical progression for her at some point was to record an album in that language.

Besides tuning into her obvious penchant for New-York-style folk-pop, Not Going Anywhere gives Keren Ann a chance to return to her family's Russian/Dutch/Javanese roots. Keren Ann was born in Israel, but spent ten years or so living in the Netherlands before finally settling in Paris. (She eventually abandoned the French capital to study in San Diego). Given her mixed cultural background perhaps it is fitting that the young chanteuse admits songs come to her "more readily" in English. Not Going Anywhere does not come across as a cynical marketing ploy designed to drum up a new public abroad (although this may well be one of the end results). Nor does Keren Ann's venture into English signal a radical break from her signature style. The English album is marked by the same elegant harmonies, the same fine, filigree compositions and whispered vocals as its French predecessor. In short, Keren Ann manages to be just as moody and melancholy in English as she is in French!

On closer listening, the songs on Keren Ann's third album in three years (not counting the Salvador experience) are of two distinct types – those Keren Ann wrote on the road during her last tour and those which already existed in an English version (which had originally been intended for The Disappearance). The latter are obviously of limited interest. This "old" English material which accounts for almost half the new album (five tracks in total), is not just a straightforward case of "cut and paste." But the English versions add little of real value to the French originals. While the English songs are 'parallel workings' rather than direct translations of their French counterparts (Surannée becoming Seventeen and Mes pas dans la neige Spanish Songbird), the "alternative" versions nevertheless leave listeners with a disturbing sense of déjà entendu. The English versions feature no major instrumental changes or radical new takes on interpretation. So it might justifiably be asked what exactly Francophone listeners are expected to get out of Not Going Anywhere.

The second category of material is obviously far more interesting, and all the more so as the author of Salvador's Jardin d’hiver chooses to move away from her former songwriting partner, the prolific Benjamin Biolay (who has constituted the backbone of her writing career to date). Breaking away from the plush strings with which Biolay likes to layer his work, Keren Ann taps into more of an openly folk vein, with one eye firmly fixed on the legacy of Joni Mitchell and Simon & Garfunkel. As for the sole co-written track on Keren Ann's new album, the delicate duet Ending Song, Keren Ann sought the collaboration of Icelandic maestro Bardi Johannsson (from the group Bang Gang), thus continuing a creative partnership launched on Lady and Bird (recently released on Labels).

Does this new duo mark the end of the "Biolay era" for Keren Ann? Only time will tell, but rumours are already flying on Internet chatrooms where fans have remarked that Biolay's name is not included on the album credits to Not Going Anywhere. Maybe Keren Ann is thinking of going somewhere after al!

Keren Ann Not Going Anywhere (Capitol 2003)

Loïc  Bussières

Translation : Julie  Street