The disc is much brighter than usual, and Benjamin Biolay indulges in a form of lightness, even sometimes self-mockery, on the content and on the form too: on certain refrains, some rises in the treble for a singer rather known for his very deep voice. “The whole beginning of my discography was composed on the piano, recalls Benjamin Biolay. There are guitar tones, more open. I always really like the minor keys, but this record was not the object of such an approach.”
An album thought out and made during confinements and other curfews and an old-fashioned design, with a reduced team, with a purely analog sound, and without any particular deadline or injunction at the time.
“It’s a curfew record. We couldn’t do concerts, so we made this music a bit energetic, electric, intense…And at the same time it’s a return to craftsmanship.”
Benjamin Biolayat franceinfo
In the content, if Benjamin Biolay refers several times to the city of Sète, dear to Brassens, its sea and its light, where he goes to recharge his batteries every summer, we are also struck by the number of saints who give their name to the pieces: Saint-Clair, a mountain located in Sète precisely, but also Saint-Germain, Sainte-Rita, or Santa-Clara.
The piece Santa Clara is performed in duet with Clara Luciani, the only guest on the record, who at one time was opening for Benjamin Biolay before becoming the French pop star she is today.
This tenth album, 21 years after the first, Rose Kennedydoes not make the singer look back, who is approaching his fifties: “I don’t look back at all, that’s what allowed me to continue to exercise my passion. Often, people who look behind have nothing more to do…”