Posted at 12:20 p.m.
Stromae strikes again
Turns of phrase are never complicated, yet they are always punchy. Word games are tasty. The instrumental part is simply fabulous. No doubt: Stromae is back and he strikes with Multitude a masterstroke (more).
We know with Stromae this way of placing the heaviness of his texts on undulating rhythms. Thus, we could always, with the two previous albums of the Belgian, dance a little while the words brought us to tears. With Multitude, often, we cry and that’s it. The seriousness of the themes is not attenuated by the coating, Stromae forces us to completely face what he tells us with his fantastic pen.
This aesthetic differs from his previous work. But whether he talks about depression, paternity, romantic relationships, prostitution or feminism, the musician captivates us. We drink in his words, we are dazzled by his melodies.
The titles Bad day and Good day, worked with Orelsan, follow and respond to each other in a brilliant way. After a few listens, we realize that songs like sons of joy, hell, Health Where Unbeaten raise the quality of this disc to a level that some other tracks do not quite equal.
Where Stromae is never wrong, however, is when it comes to its productions. The instrumental accompaniment he created is less electro, less danceable, but it is incisive, varied, full of tasty details and reliefs. The singer-songwriter opens the door to a multitude (!) of themes, but also of musical flavors.
The sometimes Afro-pop, sometimes Caribbean influences, the use of instruments such as the old Chinese, the charango or the Persian flute, make this album a constant surprise. Thirty minutes perfectly dosed, which we will gladly listen to in a loop.
Pop
Multitude
Stromae
Polydor/Universal
Serious groove
The dancing momentum of Stromae counterbalanced the heaviness of his texts so far. We were dancing on Papaoutai and Then we dance as we did on The world is crying of Jean Leloup, that is to say by hearing without really listening to these words which are not light at all, ignoring the disenchanted tone or the distress that one felt behind the words. It wasn’t really denial: we were more like the consenting victims of skillfully orchestrated manipulations.
Multitude still plays with this contrast between groove and gravity. With less happiness, however. Stromae has less taste for dancing. At least not on euro pop rhythms. He picks up everywhere, especially in Latin America, the pulses and sounds on which he places his raw observations on love relationships, social inequalities, prejudices and psychological distress.
hell, a rather sweet song in which he evokes suicide, is a real tour de force: both hyper direct and sensitive. Too often, on the other hand, Stromae offers very square texts, without great poetry, which his music, however skilful, and sometimes even teeming with inventiveness, fails to bring out.
Has Maestro Stromae lost his magic touch? Not completely, of course, but definitely part of his grace. His intention to highlight those we despise or do not look at is noble, but it is too strong and ends up sounding self-righteous. Multitude, in its less good times, even borders on pompous to the point of becoming annoying. Here, unfortunately, the bass outweighs the groove.
Pop
Multitude
Stromae
Polydor/Universal