Do you prefer Jack White’s well “distorted” rock scorches or his quirky country-folk side? Do you have a weakness for the new grunge colors of Safia Nolin, or do you like her music in a stripped down folk version as we discovered it with Limoilou ? Émilie Simon bossa-nova version, does that intrigue you?
Good news: you won’t have to choose, since these multiple versions exist and even coexist rather well! More and more artists are releasing their songs in several versions. We are not talking about a trend here, but rather an epiphenomenon spotted a few times since the start of the pandemic and its successive confinements.
It was seen in the American Jack White with taking me back, title harbinger of two albums which will appear in a few months. This piece is available in a “nice” version, with perky violin and honky tonk piano, then in a frontal rock version on which all the guitarist’s virtuosity unfolds.
Chez Safia Nolin, the mini-album SUM is presented in an ecringrunge, in formula band (“ sunset “), then in a stripped version with small birds (“ sunrise “). Phenomenon also observed at the French Émilie Simon, who launched the five titles of the project March on Earth 2020 first in a tonic pop version, then in charming bossa-nova arrangements, somewhat following the curve of the A and B sides of a vinyl.
New reflex developed by certain artists in the perspective that their songs are received in the intimate cocoon of the confined listener? Pandemic weariness that cancels any desire to choose? Different relationship to the commodification of songs? Appearance of chameleon songs that allow artists to adapt to the energy of rooms sometimes full of excited spectators, the next day half-filled with a masked audience that is not allowed to dance?
Emily in Brooklyn
Joined by FaceTime in her cute New York studio, the Frenchwoman Émilie Simon praises the resilience of her new neighbors. “I started coming here in 2006-2007 for my albums Vegetal and The emperor’s walk, and I fell in love with the city. During the pandemic, I stayed there because of the complications at the borders. We are on the alert at the moment, it is not the recklessness of the beginnings, but the New Yorkers always fall back on their feet, and the energy is good despite what we are going through. »
Émilie was one of the first to launch, at first in dribs and drabs, songs composed in direct tune with what we were going through. “They were written spontaneously at the start of the pandemic, in March 2020, hence the title of the album: Mars on Earth 2020. My natural reflex was to put myself at the piano to express what I felt through melodies. The result: a bouquet of five songs that talk about the arrival of an extraterrestrial threat, a somewhat anxiety-provoking chronicle of a spreading shadow and a new world with which we will have to learn to come to terms.
“After a while, we understood that the pandemic would not end anytime soon. Our plans for the summer fell through, and we once again found ourselves confined to our apartments. I said to myself: “Well, we’re still there, so we’re going to take the same songs, but this time we’re going to do them as if we were going on vacation”, hence the bossa arrangements and their more sunny and poetic side. . It was the contrast that interested me. We are less in the extraterrestrial threat; there is a bit of humor and second degree to lighten the mood. Art allows us to sublimate our perception of events so that we can continue to move forward. »
I said to myself: “Well, we are still there, so we will take the same songs, but we will do them this time as if we were going on vacation”.
Never two without three
Shortly before embarking on a small tour in the American Northeast, singer BEYRIES launched three versions of Valhalla Dancerwhich had not found its place on the album Encounter, in 2020.
Amélie Beyries had several versions of this ode to the paradise of the Vikings in her bag, a meditation inspired by reflections on life after death. The first has the raw, unfiltered beauty of models. The second, signed by Pierre Marchand, known for his work with Sarah McLachlan, unfolds with the power of a wave. Behind the third, delicate and very nicely arranged, there is the signature of Alex McMahon, its usual director.
“I didn’t want to choose. For a long time, it has fascinated me to see how songs can come to life differently depending on who is singing, performing or producing. You can have fun with that, music is a malleable art. »
Mini-album of three titles, monoplage proposed in three parts, or triptych, the form is vague and it matters little. “Everything is accelerated now, but I like to take my time, allow myself to exploit and multiply the work already accomplished. Right now, the platforms are making that possible. There is this idea of “recycling”, of keeping one’s energy, in a certain sense. A reflection with which Émilie Simon agrees: “We produce, we produce, but isn’t there a way to create with what we already have in hand, like in fashion, where we think more and more about the issue of overconsumption? We reuse fabrics, a new, more ethical consciousness has emerged… Why not also in music? We accumulate beautiful pieces; there are games to do with that, a form of recycling possible with the songs. »
I didn’t want to choose. You can have fun with that, music is a malleable art.
New Horizons
The Scrapbook SUM, by Safia Nolin, is a very successful example of a double variation fueled by the artist’s desire to circumvent the alleged obligation to elect only one for posterity. “I was inhabited by an anger that led me towards grunge energy, but I didn’t want to give up my acoustic versions. I’m thinking of Sufjan Stevens, who released two versions of the song in 2017 Tonya Harding : one tragic and grandiose, the other bare. While chatting with Matt Holubowski, we realized that we did not prefer the same one. »
It is also a way of circumventing a business model that serves artists by espousing the age-old rigid logic of the complete album, “a sanitized, suffocating and outdated model, which demands a lot from the artist and which is not not, in my opinion, the smartest way to market art. The public no longer has the patience nor the attention to listen to a complete album; very beautiful songs go through the butter. Why not opt for other formulas? »
We discover thanks to SUM that the visceral and uncompromising energy of grunge suits Safia marvelously. Sensitive ears will be able to curl up in the folk versions of the same four songs, more typical of the sound we know him.
Safia has even offered concerts that respect the logic of this dual perspective. Had it not been for the arrival of the Omicron variant last December, an acoustic show at the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours chapel and a rock concert full-band the next day at Les Foufounes Electriques was on the program. “And I notice that there are more guys in my shows. Many discover me at the moment through the amplified grunge side of the EP. My music hasn’t changed, but maybe to their ears it sounds less like “girl music”. The intense, meaner grunge side, they seem comfortable with that! »