Carla Bruni’s music isn’t taken very seriously anymore, which is a pity because she is a fantastic musician first. In fact, I would rate her career in modeling a far, far second – because give this woman a guitar and tell her to sing and it WORKS. Her voice, a strong reed of an instrument, is a luscious thing to behold – capable of ‘driving men insane’ (as a French daily once said while reviewing her first CD), but she is also well aware of the limitations of her voice. She never chooses material she cannot sing or do justice to, and wonder of wonders, the woman plays the guitar on virtually every track here.
Benjamin Biolay as a musician on your record is a fine compliment indeed (he is perhaps the greatest living male French recording artist in the world right now), and Carla surrounds herself with producers and musicians who bring out the best in her.
If you liked her first album “Quelqu’un M’a Dit”, you will immediately realize that this album is at least twice as good as that one. Unlike that debut CD, there is absolutely no filler here, and you can play this back and forth a hundred times and still find a note here, an instrument there, that will make you rush to play back the whole thing yet again. How many albums can you say that about?
My personal favorite is the poignant and stunning “Ma Jeunesse”, which opens the album and sets its’ tone. Carla Bruni is past 40 but loves talking about age and wisdom it brings (which is something I love about French women, by the way). On this song she sings about youth and how it passed away so quickly – there is almost a sarcastic tone to the song that I found very interesting. The most accomplished track on the record however is the second song “La Possibilite d’une Ile”, which is actually a poem set to music (which is a hard thing to do to begin with). Carla carries on her tradition of setting obscure poetry to music. Followers of her music will remember that her second album “No Promises” consisted of old English poems set to contemporary folk-pop music (it didn’t work, but it was an admirable effort nonetheless).
“Ta Tienne” coins an entirely new French phrase and is the fastest paced song here. “Je Suis un enfant” is almost like a mirror image of the first track “Ma Jeunesse” as the singer compares herself to a child, and “Tu es ma came” is a spellbinding ode to a lover, with analogies and allegories abound. Considering the woman writes most of her own lyrics, the album as a whole is masterful, but also immensely listenable. Its rare to find something like this in the French recording field – a field that of late has been overtaken by the ‘Reality TV’ syndrome a la American Idol.
Whether or not Carla Bruni is the first lady of France or not should not affect your purchase decision – the bottom line is that this is an album of unparalleled beauty, especially since it also pays homage to Carla’s Italian ancestry (the gorgeous album closer), and it interestingly features a lot of songs related to age, growing older, and looking at love and relationships with the benefit of time. To find a female singer doing something like this is indeed refreshing.
“Comme si de rien N’etait” is easily Carla’s best album. It seems that each year I find one French album to term a ‘classic’. Last year it was Vanessa Paradis’ flawless “Divinidylle”, which brought her back from musical obscurity. Carla Bruni takes that crown this year, with this absolutely wondrous selection of songs. If you are looking for a mellow, folk-influenced French language album for your solo nights at home with wine, rain and some great home cooked food, this is the perfect album for you. Its very much a solo record though, in the sense that you will appreciate it more if you play it on a good sound system and let it play all the way through while sipping your wine. I often find myself doing this a couple of times a week with this album, and its a staple in my household. I hope you discover it too.
85/100
