Album review

Véronique Sanson

Plusieurs lunes

Paris 

29/11/2010 - 

Plusieurs lunes is the fourth studio album by Véronique Sanson, one of the great French variété figures, who has returned more light hearted and liberated than ever.

Five years separate Plusieurs lunes from her previous album, Longue Distance. Enough time for Véronique Sanson to go back to something more simple and instinctive. The former wife of Stephen Stills created this album in her home on the banks of the Seine River, with the help of some friends, like her faithful bass player Dominique Bertram and backing singer and multiple instrumentalist, Mehdi Benjelloun.

Plusieurs Lunes marks the singer’s return to production after some fairly impersonal releases. The first impression can be surprising. La Nuit se fait attendre, with its accents of Cuban salsa, lends a dancing, festive flavour that is somewhat unexpected. Véronique Sanson even tries her hand at singing in Spanish several times. Je veux être un homme, with its playful comments, and Pas bô, pas bien carry on in the same joyful, rhythmic vein.

It’s not until the lyrical track, Qu’on me pardonne, that we return to more familiar ground from the author of Amoureuse  (1972). Originally written by her sister Violaine for Johnny Hallyday, the song has finally been adopted by Véronique herself. It is a kind of life assessment in song expressed with the singer’s familiar grandiloquence and guttural accents. The family story continues to unravel in Say my last goodbye, sung in a duet with her son Christopher Stills.

Plusieurs lunes is an eclectic album, although the sound is outmoded and it tends to drag on a bit. It is likely to appeal to the singer’s most ardent fans, and will hopefully take younger listeners on a journey back to the start of the singer-pianist’s still remarkable career.

Véronique Sanson Plusieurs Lunes (Warner) 2010
On tour throughout France, including 28 February to 4 March at the Olympia (Paris).

Jérôme  Pichon

Translation : Anne-Marie  Harper