Pomme - À Peu Près
Apple (finger) picking
When I saw her in Taratata TV show, I didn’t know her at all. Despite a rather flat performance (only an old French rap cover, what a funny idea), her multicoloured shirt and her sweet little face made me want to know more.
Let’s dissect this album together. At the first listening I found it pleasant. Only pleasant. But I had the good idea to listen again. Then every other song appeared to me more striking (roughly the even-numbered). By the way the heady "tam tam tam o ho" ("Même Robe qu'Hier") could easily become a hit.
The style and voice aren’t a huge novelty of course. I’m thinking of Cécile Corbel, but less Celtic and more pop (you actually can find a duo of the 2 girls in Cécile’s last album). Turning back the clock a little, of Audrey Sara in the way of singing, of tipping over in clouds. Turning back the clock even more, of Lucid Beausonge. But Pomme – real name Claire Pommet – has youth, freshness and a personal way to throwing her little tunes, sometives naive ("Pauline"), sometimes 60’s ("De Là-Haut"), sometimes tragic ("On Brûlera"). If her high-pitched oooooh’s in the opera singing way irritate me sometimes, she is also capable of of a very interesting deep voice which delights me.
Like with every self-respecting folk album, you have a right to a few ternary pieces (I counted 3 of them), to good 3-voices backing vocals ("Adieu Mon Homme", which I imagine well sung by Gildas Arzel, except the female lyrics), to intimist acoustic guitar arpeggios ("De Quoi Te Plaire").
Far from being trashy, the lyrics of the singer from Lyon speak of love ("Ce Garçon Est une Ville"), of break-up ("Adieu Mon Homme", "À Peu Près"), of death ("On Brûlera", "De Là-Haut") and rebirth ("La Lavande"), but of insomnia too ("Ceux Qui Rêvent"). Pomme has enlisted the signatures of Ben Mazué, Yannick Marais and Sébastien Miel (La Maison Tellier), Jean Felzine (Mustang) and Bensé (who mostly pleased me with Jil Is Lucky, but now I feel I’d have to look at his personal releases again).
The sleeve is a misunderstanding. The beetles on the ingenue’s cheek suggest a certain amount of eccentricity, Émilie-Simon-style, which is absolutely not the case of this breathing, fluid, pure album. Same remark for the related videos where she appears frozen. Opt for her acoustic videos with autoharp which are minor miracles.
Besides guitar and autoharp, she plays cello, doublebass, glockenspiel and omnichord too!
Like all the young generation, she is manifestly very marked by image and appearances. And the staunch feminist inside her still tries to find herself. Pomme will mature, that’s for sure, while going on relying on her amazing musical and vocal precocity.
As for me, the only thing left for me to do is seeing her in concert. Provided that she doesn’t sing again the same cover as in Taratata TV show.
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39 minutes for 13 songs, which makes us an average of 3 minutes per song. This is rather short and I had liked a little more development, especially in the more ethereal pieces ("À Peu Près", "On Brûlera"). "La Lavande" and its 4:16 hardly accomplish this duty. On the other hand, brevity is perfect for more spirited tracks ("Même Robe qu'Hier", "Pauline").
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Même Robe qu'Hier
On Brûlera
Adieu Mon Homme -
La Gare
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The sentence
“I’m raising up my glass to the joys and the sufferings I wanna reminisce” ("A Lonely One")
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her
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...And now, listen!
- www.deezer.com/en/album/49096522 (259 Hits)
- open.spotify.com/album/6wbpJmBEEZuRrFYxwDE2R9 (317 Hits)
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TagsTaratata | autoharp | Gildas Arzel | Ben Mazué | Bensé | La Maison Tellier | Cécile Corbel | Claire Pommet | folk
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Created21 May 2018
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