Julien Clerc | Forgettable immortals ★★½

We know almost all the songs by heart from Julien Clerc’s new album because we’ve heard them.

Posted yesterday at 11:30 a.m.

Alexandre Vigneault

Alexandre Vigneault
The Press

By Trenet (Boom), Piaf (My carousel), Aznavour (makes me great, Venice is so sad), Yves Montand (A bicycle), Becaud (I come back for you, The Rose is the important part), Barbara (Vienna, Tell me, when will you come back ? ) and we move on. Countless times too. And now here are the versions of Julien Clerc.

It’s all very pretty. Wrapped in elegant arrangements, very professional, very clean. What is not enough to make the album Happy Days a very interesting disc. In addition to offering an arch-known repertoire – he didn’t dig very far – he serves it up in versions without much imagination. By putting them in his own way, of course, that is to say by stretching the notes and using this tremolo that we know him, but by bringing nothing new to them.

This lack of surprise leaves plenty of time to linger over the small failures of the singer, whose so sure voice is now hesitant in the treble. Lack of chest here, momentum there. Julien Clerc wanted to sing his immortals, but his interpretations will unfortunately not remain so.

Happy Days

Covers

Happy Days

Julien Clerc

Musicor

½


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