Still there at 70, Renaud returns with a new cover album this Friday, May 6

While most of the media and part of public opinion have been burying him prematurely for years, Renaud continually returns to center stage. As if to prove that he is still alive, the annoying singer makes it a point of honor to continue recording records, without worrying about fashions or the opinion of his fans, who are sometimes not kind to him. Perhaps to reassure himself? To prove to himself that he still has some under the hood, and that they are neither the « newspaper » nor the « butt pushers » that will make him bite the dust. He will decide when to stop, no one else.

And then the one who will be 70 years old on May 11 and has always dreaded the passage of time, probably also wants to hear again and again that he is still loved, that his audience remains faithful to him. From that side, he has little to worry about. Even if the opinions are divided, and that some historical fans believe that he would be better off writing for other artists rather than performing covers, it’s a safe bet that his new album metic which comes out this Friday, May 6, will once again be a hit.

Renaud is first and foremost a sharp pen, a sense of formula, a mixer of words. But for this return after a little over two years, the singer preferred to cover the artists he loves. After writing and singing about childhood in Kids and kids firstthe Parisian titi remembered what he listened to as a child and a teenager.

« I wanted to pay tribute to my masters, those who made me want to sing » explains the singer-songwriter. « And to the songs that rocked my childhood, my adolescence and a little more. To be a smuggler who transmits the emotion coming from another to the greatest number, by bringing a little bit of oneself, without betraying. »

Renaud thus revisits among others Moustaki, Ferrat, Reggiani, Bourvil, Trenet, Aufray, Lapointe… and of course Brassens, his mentor to whom he had already devoted an album of covers in 1996. If it’s been almost five decades since our titi-poulbot occupies the front of the French scene with his own compositions since his first album released in 1975, he has never forgotten to mention his influences. In 1980, for his singing tour at Bobino, he took up a whole repertoire of realistic songs, and in 1993, in the wake of the filming of Germinalhe published an entire disc in chti’mi to recall his northern origins through his mother.

The title of the album which is also the opening track suits the singer perfectly. We feel that Renaud completely appropriates the words of metic. Voluntarily or not, we think we hear at the end of the last verse « we will live to laugh about it » instead of « we will live to die ». Difficult to say if it is intended, or if it is due to a slightly approximate pronunciation.

Because it must be said that the singer’s voice is obviously no longer at the level of the 70s-80s-90s. But that, we got used to for many years. And there, we are surprised to find it better than on the two previous opuses. The benefit of going from four packs of cigarettes a day to just one. So much so that his heavy smoker’s voice, even if it is still hoarse and a bit short of breath, has gained in range, and reaches the treble more easily.

Renaud, always there (STÉPHANE DE BOURGIES) — Renaud, always there (STEPHANE DE BOURGIES)

As for the way of making songs popularized by others his own, Renaud renews it for example in Hollywood by adapting it to the first person. Likewise, one cannot help but think that he must have been jubilant while singing this line of Chuck’s lament : « The first theft I made in my life was to have pinned a priest’s purse ». A classic of French heritage that echoes certain compositions by the singer, such as scavengers Where little thief.

Another essential of the French repertoire, The cherry season. It’s the first song that came to him when he thought of this album, his 18th in the studio. And it’s no wonder when you remember the singer shouting “The town will bloom again” on « Society you won’t get me ». A verse that served as the title of the Ogres de Barback disc, released 6 months ago.

For me, it’s one of the most beautiful in the French repertoire.

renaud

about the song « The time of cherries »

This song heard many times is here brought up to date with very folk arrangements. As metic finds an unexpected rock color, or Hollywood abandons its original country side a little for more melancholy. Generally speaking, Michel Coeuriot’s elaborate orchestrations refresh all these mostly well-known tunes. A second musical youth that accompanies the singer in his quest for perpetual rebirth.

It has indeed become recurrent in the career of the artist for a while. Who would have thought that in 2017 his tour would be sold out? The imagery of the phoenix was well on point: Renaud was once again reborn from his ashes. Just like 20 years ago when came out Hell of a bang in May 2002, the biggest sale of his entire discography.

Already at the time, this disc sounded like an unexpected resurrection. Twenty years later, despite criticism, disappointments, alcohol, breakups, family deaths, loss of inspiration, sometimes clumsy political positions… Renaud is still there in 2022.

And beyond album releases or rare public speaking, Renaud’s personality remains very present in people’s hearts. Evidenced by the reception given to the book The return of the sequel recently published, and validated by the artist. This book by designer Marc Large and director Johanna Turpeau was originally intended to be a film that could not be shot due to the health crisis. But it has just seen the light of day in written form. A fiction composed with the characters of Renaud’s songs, which arouses growing enthusiasm.