Arno delivers his final words on ‘Opex,’ a posthumous album that celebrates the beauty of life

The release of a posthumous record always arouses mixed feelings. Commercial operation playing on the sensitive chord? Compilation of unpublished works against the decision of the artist? None of that with OpexArno’s fifteenth and final album, which will be released on Friday 30 September.

The Belgian singer died on April 23, 2022, but he was still in the studio at the end of March to record this opus that he wanted to release at all costs. He put all his energy into it and drew on his last strength to complete the production, which began in the spring of 2021. A work that is both testamentary and turned towards life.

The title of the album owes its name to a popular district of Ostend where Arno grew up. “Opex” is also called “lighthouse district”. The singer’s maternal grandparents ran a very popular popular café there, and the artist pays homage in this latest album to his grandfather who took him to popular balls and showed him how to seduce women. Gateway to England and a place of musical ferment, Ostend was the ideal crossroads to discover rock’n’roll. Arno heard there when he was 8 years old One night with you of Elvis Presley. with later Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan, it’s a song that will mark him for life. So what could be more natural than recording it to close the loop.

Arno knows he is doomed and does not go overboard to talk about his illness, or even his imminent death. “My mind can’t keep up with my legs” does he sing in I can’t dance (“I can’t dance”- Editor’s note)while he laments a “short circuit in my mind” on another title. As for the opening of the album, The truthshe almost already announces her departure: “I’m going to marry the wind, I take the sun like my lover (…) Embrace the past, it no longer exists, Yesterday was the past, today the truth”. The scratchy guitar solo reinforces this inescapable feeling.

But in this same song, he also affirms: “Life today is more important”. Arno invites us to savor the present, to live despite everything.

On the last track, my brother Peter plays the saxophone and I play the harmonica. That’s what I wanted: it’s my last record, right?

Arno

about the track “I’m Not Gonna Whistle”

This is the whole duality of this album. Death but also life. At the first listen, we first feel an often twilight atmosphere as in take me back and his words of farewell. “The hour has passed, the fire is gone. Now there is more a feeling of goodbye than of hello”. It’s also the heartbreaking harmonica in My grandfather or the very moving Short circuit in my mind accompanied by the piano of Sofiane Pamart. Arno had also recorded his previous album Live in 2021 with the young pianist from Lille.

As for the harmonica on the last title I’m not gonna whistle (“I’m not going to whistle” – Editor’s note), it seems almost out of tune with the piece, as if the musician is already somewhere else.

But the one who has often sung about the party and women keeps a little bit of euphoria for his latest songs. Even if he admits to paying for his “bullshit from the past”he remembers that he “still love Elvis” from which he takes One night with you. In dumplingshe almost forgets his illness, “But who cares, we’re partying”, and speaks bluntly of onanism: “I do it with my left hand, so I think someone else is doing it”. Despite its status as the ultimate album, Opex remains an ode to the pleasures of life.

And the central title synthesizes this ambivalence of feelings. A recovery of La Paloma Farewell, a success of Mireille Mathieu in 1975. A perky rhythm between tango and reggae on a nostalgic text that evokes childhood memories and a sailor’s love. The singer put her voice on Arno’s recording as he was leaving… a bit like the boat in the song.

One may be surprised at first sight of a duet between the Belgian singer with a rather rock’n’roll spirit and the variety star accustomed to popular hits, which still today conveys a corny image. But no doubt that Arno once again wanted to celebrate carelessness with this Mediterranean air. We must not forget that his first major solo hit was Girls by the sea, a cover of Adamo, another singer sometimes wrongly cataloged “has been” and nice. The two artists have also had the opportunity to perform the piece together on stage several times.

Perhaps Arno simply wanted to remind us that all music can coexist, that all styles can marry and help us live in the present moment. “Life is too short to be small”, proclaims the artist in Short circuit in my mind. Undoubtedly, Opex is a poignant disc, beautiful and intense like a bottle of absinthe. The song doesn’t matter, as long as we’re drunk.

Arno “Opex” – released September 30 (Pias). All the info on the official website and Facebook page