Sometimes, metamorphoses go further than we anticipated, and the beautiful change planned can knock us off our feet or take our breath away. It’s a bit like the story of singer Eli Rose, who, in 2019, pulled out all the stops with a first solo record ticking all the codes of pop, miles away from her first song project, Eli et Papillon.
The great whirlwind that followed and its sudden stop due to the pandemic will have damaged the Montrealer, who returns on record with Hypersensitivedriven by a refocused approach and ambitions, closer to its nature and its real desires.
In his yellow hoodie, Eli Rose immediately returns to the adventure of his first record, launched in 2019, which bears his name and on which the new Maison Barclay label was banking heavily. It was an opportunity for the singer to reinvent herself. From “jovial” songs, she moved on to catchy summer pop and a cousin of rap, even creating a sartorial identity “ sporty » — with white shoes, Adidas pants and Fila sweaters.
And it worked for her, driven among other things by the success Carousel. On the clock: some 26 million total listens on music platforms and several opening acts for big names like Angèle or Jaïn. It worked, so, but… too much for her.
“I wanted to play the game, then create myself a little, like Miley Cyrus when she came out [du personnage] from Hannah Montana, Eli Rose said with a laugh. It’s sure that for me, it’s not the same level, but it was like my moment Wrecking Ball : It was now or never if I wanted to make this 180 degree turn. Except that I quickly realized that it was too much. I was too extreme. »
Looking back, the musician believes that her back was not strong enough for these roller coasters and these immense challenges. Plus, she felt out of place in her (white) pumps. “That’s not who I am fundamentally,” explains the woman whose real name is Élise Larouche. You know, I like spending time at home, I like gardening, I dress in the same jeans every day. When I go to pick up my son from daycare, I don’t wear makeup…”
These are a lot of words about the past, but they are essential for Eli Rose to understand where she stands on Hypersensitive. After all these emotions and the heavy burden of the pandemic, the one who received the Félix for Revelation of the Year in 2020 has finally come out of her torpor. This compilation of songs, “it’s a return to simpler things, to who I am. In fact, it’s like a personal quest in different parts. It’s an album where I tapped into all my emotional overflow.”
To do this, Eli Rose notably had the help of the author Gaëlle, a pro with words and songs. In one evening and a little coffee, the two creators wrote down the skeleton of the album in a document. “She told me: ‘If you don’t feel good, we’ll write it down to make you feel good.’ This album was therapy. »
She talks a little about love – including an old story not yet healed on CDN —, of his love of the time spent on 1994social networks on Heaven — spoiler: she hates it — and a lot of questioning, including the world of music. “Her majesty the queen / Was not prepared / To come out of the shadows so much / Juggle in the world”, she sings on Ace of hearts. “It’s not so much against my label, against this industry, it’s more against the character that I created. But looking back, today, I am not in a golden cage, as I say, because there, I regained control. »
Hypersensitive is musically in a different spectrum than that of its predecessor. It’s still pop, but less soaked in sunscreen and less intended to break everything. Eli Rose has done more “explorations”, notably with director Connor Seidel (Half Moon Run) and Nk. F, a studio star who works with the big names in French rap, including PNL.
The album is more…sitting? “That’s really it. There are songs that are more like long waves, she says. That doesn’t mean I’ll never do candy songs, but I didn’t make the album thinking “I absolutely want it to be played on the radio”. This is the first time I haven’t thought about that. I just want to make songs that I love. »
Here, therefore, the gesture counts more than the result, and that changes the situation. His ambitions are consistent, too: simply to meet his audience in a pleasant context. “I have five dates in February, and I would like that, for example, not to catch a daycare virus,” she laughs. You know, live five good showsTHE fun. Just that, I will be grateful. And hey, I’ll never be Angèle, I’ll never be Taylor Swift, but I’m proud of this album. Then, I’m going to take him as far as he can go. That’s what I tell myself. »