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Album review
Johnny Hallyday
Ça ne finira jamais
Paris
30/10/2008 -
Johnny's new album - which enjoys a timely release six months before the French rock icon's farewell tour - is rather bizarrely entitled Ça ne finira jamais (It will never end). Is the title, we wonder, some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, predicting that Johnny, the eternal "youth idol", will never relinquish his hold on the French charts? Whatever the case, in the run-up to his official retirement, Monsieur Hallyday looks fit, tanned and blonder than ever, straddling his beloved Harley Davidson on the album cover and sporting a Hell's Angel-style skull ring lest we doubt he means business. And he certainly does! According to the singer's promotional material, all thirteen tracks on the new album are firmly aimed at the "musical mainstream" - and the lyrics are easy enough to learn off by heart in six months for a stadium sing-along! 
In short, Johnny's new album (partly recorded in Los Angeles) is packed with potential hits. The title track has already been released as a single and, after being bombarded on the French airwaves for weeks has, not surprisingly, rocketed up the charts. Concocted with a little help from Calogero and his team, the song pays tribute to Johnny's loyal army of fans, the singer admitting that he is "only the sum of all those arms stretched out to me, all those beating hearts." Another French music star, Francis Cabrel has also written a song specially for Johnny, a slower bluesy number on which the veteran rocker recounts the daily life of a star with a few well-placed tremolos in his voice. Je n’appartiens qu’à toi - penned by France's new teen rock'n'pop idol Raphael - is probably the most outstanding track on the album. And love it or hate it, it is guaranteed to bring yet more tears to fans' eyes with its gentle piano notes and emotion-charged lyrics.
Ça ne finira jamais features more than its fair share of guest stars, involving contributions from Johnny's son David, Christophe Maé, the French slam artist Grand Corps Malade and the young British soul star Joss Stone. Yet somehow these rock ballads have more of a standard run-of-the-mill feel. Johnny has obviously sweated a little less over the making of this new album than fans hope their idol will live on stage during his stadium tour next May.
Johnny Hallyday kicks off his tour of France, Belgium and Switzerland on 9 May 2009. Three dates at Le Stade de France (29 - 31 May 2009) have already sold out.
Fleur de la Haye
15/09/1999 -
