You don’t expect to be surprised when you listen to a new album by Albin de la Simone. More like a reunion with an old acquaintance, with what that implies of changes linked to the passage of time and of familiarity. And it is all the more true that his album The next hundred years comes six years after his last disc of songs, one of uspublished in 2017.
What remains familiar? This soft song, close to confidence, full of tenderness, a bit nostalgic and sometimes imbued with deadpan humor. These melodies that coil easily in the ear. Which is new ? Small desires for grandeur and flight, which assert themselves through brass arrangements, as if shaped by a glassblower.
To these music full of grace, Albin de la Simone evokes the tyranny of appearances (For being pretty) and mourning the abortion (Mireille 1972), recounts the moods of a father overwhelmed by his teenager (Your mother and me) and speaks of a breakup (leave). He also tackles the reverse, that is to say the love that is born or that lasts, in a pair of dreamy songs devoid of sentimentality, The next hundred years and the very beautiful Wonder.
The next hundred years, concocted among others with director Sage (Revolver), drummer Robbie Kuster (Patrick Watson) and mixed by Ghyslain Luc Lavigne, is a new gem in Albin de la Simone’s discography. Nobody makes songs like him.
Song
The next hundred years
Albin de la Simone
VF Musique / Sooner or later