 |
  |
Album review
Sylvie Vartan
Toutes peines confondues
Paris
16/09/2009 -
 |
 |
There is something equally provocative about Sylvie's decision to include a song entitled Je chante le blues (featuring lyrics and music written by France's First Lady, Carla Bruni). The message - "Moi je chante le blues/Même si le blues n’est pas pour les filles comme moi" ("I sing the blues/Even though the blues are not for girls like me!") - could equally well be applied to Sylvie or Carla!
In short, Toutes peines confondues is a deliberately mischievous, tongue-in-cheek album, an album on which Ms. Vartan asserts her freedom and her musical identity after years as the blonde pop "poupée" who sold tens of millions of albums. Confident in her own talent and her own choices, the singer surrounded herself with a host of new collaborators this time round (including Marc Lavoine, Eric Chemouny, Pierre-Dominique Burgaud and Nathalie Rheims.) And she even wrote the music for several tracks on her new album including the superb Une lettre d’amour. This dramatic shift in Sylvie's attitude is perhaps the result of her recent change of record label. Two years after her covers album Nouvelle vague (released on Universal), the singer has returned to the label that launched her: RCA (now owned by Sony).
Long-term Vartan fans should rest assured that their idol has not changed beyond all recognition. Sylvie - portrayed as a glamorous, blonde vamp on the album cover photographed by Pierre & Gilles - still sings with that inimitable deep, husky voice, keeping her distance from out-and-out pathos and revealing a hint of tough rock chick beneath her cool exterior.
Je chante le blues
In concert at L'Olympia, Paris: 18 - 20 September 2009.
Bertrand Dicale
Translation : Julie Street
06/12/2010 -
29/08/2007 -
29/10/1998 -
