Recto Verso
I have to admit that the release of Isabelle Geffroy's (or Zaz as she is better known to the Francophone world) eponymous debut album back in 2010 sort of passed me by. I tried listening to it, but to be honest found it a mish-mash of styles - part Jazz, part "Chanson"; with a little bit of blues, soul and pop thrown in for good measure. All were undoubtedly married to an exceptional voice, but it was as if the artist herself wasn't quite sure how to market herself and was playing safe by trying to cover as many musical bases as possible. Result? Although songs such as "Port Coton" and "Eblouie par la nuit" were great ballads, I didn't quite get it, so to these ears and taken as a whole, the album never really gelled... So fast forward to 2013 and the release of her second album, "Recto Verso", and to be honest I wasn't going to give it a second thought... Until that is I hit upon a review - or at least a translation of a review from Dutch blog Nummer Van de Dag - that was so passionate about both album and artist that I just had to give it a listen... and then a second listen...
And then it hit me...
First and foremost Zaz is a "Chanteuse" and she sings "Chansons". Actually, let me rephrase that. Zaz? Ballads? She abso-bloody-lutely nails them...
So it's actually kind of brave then that the album's opener, "On ira" is actually a pretty upbeat pop song (and a great one a that - check the video below), but it's when she really gets her teeth into a ballad that Zaz steps it up a notch. The voice takes on a rasping edge, there's added fragility and emotion... Check out "La lessive" or the Piaf-esque "Je tant escamoté" (complete with haunting accordion), the heartfelt "Déterre" or the melancholy "Si je perds", to get an idea of what I'm trying to convey.
So it's actually kind of brave then that the album's opener, "On ira" is actually a pretty upbeat pop song (and a great one a that - check the video below), but it's when she really gets her teeth into a ballad that Zaz steps it up a notch. The voice takes on a rasping edge, there's added fragility and emotion... Check out "La lessive" or the Piaf-esque "Je tant escamoté" (complete with haunting accordion), the heartfelt "Déterre" or the melancholy "Si je perds", to get an idea of what I'm trying to convey.
There's still an undercurrent of Jazz on the album - given that this is a bona fide Chanteuse's album it perhaps isn't that surprising - indeed there's a great and faithful cover of Charles Aznavour's "Ouble Loulou" - complete with thumping double bass - but this time the theme is woven into the fabric of the album... Add another couple of top-notch pop songs, "Gamine" and "Nous debout" that really glue this album together and you have an album that really deserves exposure to a wider audience.
But don't just take my word for it...
Take for example the renowned economist and New York Times columnist, Professor Paul Krugman, writing in the aforementioned paper about a YouTube clip of "Les passants";
"By the way, if you want to know what this song is about, beats me; translated, the lyrics read like a parody of the subtitles to an old French art film. And you know what? Who cares? Awesome:"
As for me? I may have accidentally stumbled on the answer to the first album conundrum without realising it. So I'm off to give it another spin or three...
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