Renaud’s next album is fast approaching. Announced for May 6, metic is composed of thirteen covers of songs from the French repertoire that he would have dreamed of writing and composing. The author of Winner Mistralwhich will celebrate its 70th birthday on May 11, revisits titles by Georges Brassens, Françoise Hardy, Jacques Higelin, Jean Ferrat and Georges Moustaki.
First single to scout, If you buy me a drink by Serge Reggiani (written by Pierre Dimey and composed by Chris Carol in 1975), has just been released this Thursday, March 31. As stripped down as the original, this piano-voice cover is just accompanied by a few strings and a discreet accordion. As for his broken voice, it seems to be better, freed from the frantic rhythm of smoking – Renaud would have gone from sixty cigarettes a day to fifteen.
The cover is accompanied by a clip, in which Renaud sings in a café that strongly resembles his former Parisian headquarters, La Closerie des Lilas, seated opposite his great friend, actor Jean-Paul Rouve, as if the lyrics were addressing him.
The lyrics of If you buy me a drinksay in particular:If you buy me a drink, we’ll go all the way / You’ll be my friend for at least a few seconds / We’ll remake the world, rocking but standing / Happy to discover that if the earth is round / We’re as round as it is and that we’re doing well“.
A funny wink for Renaud, who sank into alcohol for a long time, damaging his health and worrying his relatives and his admirers. In his latest interview, granted in September to the newspaper The ParisianRenaud claimed to have “quit alcohol permanently and be “a new man“.
His last album, Kids and children first! dates back to November 2019. Since then, the singer has released a single around the coronavirus crisis, Corona Songbefore appearing as a guest at the end of 2021 in the song Among the Corsicans of Benabar. As for the stage, he seems to have given up on it. “No, I’m retired. I’ll do a minimum of promo, that’s all“, he said in September to the Parisian.