Lost and Found
Listening Post 233. Clio doesn’t so much write songs as paint them. Her lyrics flow in conversational tones, filling each story like brush strokes on a canvas. On Déjà Venise (Already in Venice), her second album, the French singer-songwriter is concerned mostly with couples on the verge of connecting or disconnecting. Her portraits, often simultaneously realist and impressionist, are composed of images—unsipped coffee on a counter, a departed lover’s footprints in snow, a suitcase thrown down a stairwell, kissing in the Louvre in front of an army of Japanese tourists. Though her music is often described as cinematic—her debut album was inspired by the New Wave film directors of the 1960s—her work is pan-aesthetic. Minimalist instrumentation, more acoustic the first time out, here more reliant on keyboards and rhythm box, frames her stories and her calm, mellow voice. The new 11-track collection dapples with vulnerability, seduction, nostalgia and ennui, from the title song—with Venice as a prop—about a couple struggling to decide who will walk out, or if either will leave at all (video 1); to the insouciant passion of Amoureuse (In Love, video 2); to the satirically malevolent Tristan (video 3). Clio’s couples often communicate at a distance: On the phone in the romantic Nous Perdre au Louvre (Getting Lost in the Louvre, video 4), or via intercom in the anxious rapprochement novella T’as Vu (Did You Notice?, video 5). And in the daydreamy Romy S. she imagines herself as Romy Schneider, with a film-worthy series of implied partners. Déjà Venise is Clio’s second masterpiece, an incisive exploration of the ambiguous, a poetic take on the quotidian in art’s most ubiquitous subject. Her acutely observed study of love captures the gloriously awkward and the spellbindingly imperfect. On the thin line between the language of music and the music of language, she hits truth. (uGo&Play/Un Plan Simple)
Related post: Clio: Clio, Listening Post 61, August 21, 2016
https://worldlisteningpost.com/2016/08/21/clio/
Déjà Venise / Already in Venice
Lyrics & Music: Clio
(from the French lyrics)
I look at you and I think/The more I look, the more I think about it
There’s a little voice that tells me something’s not very funny
Something that will spoil my night, and the days to come
I’m unbearable and you overreact/You clear the table, we drank almost nothing
I turn around but nothing sticks/I tell you I love you, I blame myself
I try everything and it all falls apart/ I put up with your jabs, you give me more
I fidget, making myself ridiculous/I say, “If you want, you can pack your bags”
But your bag is packed/In your head you’re already in Venice
Your bag is packed/With shirts and hangers
I should have thought about this before/Leave me alone, let me go first
I should have thought about this before/Leave me alone, let me go ahead
But what’s with this story?/ You think it works like that?
Dinner ends and/We’re finished?
You say that it’s been days/Since we laughed, since we said anything
You say we make meals/That we don’t enjoy, that leave us hungrier than before
And it’s true/I said it myself
I’ve been saying it longer than you/ What do you think?
By the way, who told you/I wouldn’t leave
This night or any another/That I wouldn’t run away?
But I will leave/And yes, I’ll run
And I’ll take the stairs two at a time/ It’s not you who’s leaving me
We just… separated/Each of us taking our own path
We loved each other more, really/Quite simply
But your bag is packed/In your head you’re already in Venice
Your bag is packed/With shirts and hangers
I should have thought about this before/Leave me alone, let me go first
I should have thought about this before/Leave me alone, let me go ahead
But no, wait, wait/I don’t think so
I don’t really want to leave/Not more than you
You don’t get to decide to change my life/Without asking my opinion
I disagree/I still love you
And I don’t know how to deliver/The hard knocks of love
Seems like we’re in hell/Plus it’s raining
You think it’s normal/A shock like this?
On this starless night/In this city without sun
But you can’t do it/You don’t know what you’re saying
Come, sit down/Get your head on straight
Abandon people like that, like…/No matter what?
You want to leave? Okay/I’m leaving with you
It’s packed/My bag
I’m ready/We’re leaving for Venice
It’s packed/My bag
With shirts and hangers
I should have thought about this before/Leave me alone, let me go first
I should have thought about this before/Leave me alone, let me go first
Amoureuse / In Love
Lyrics & Music: Clio
I fall in love from time to time/To clean the air inside
Yeah, I write whatever, I write whenever/It’s dead calm in there
I fall in love quite often/It lifts my spirit
But don’t worry, don’t worry/I won’t touch
Anything that’s yours/I won’t touch it
I fall in love, but don’t take it too seriously/It doesn’t deserve all this anger
In love but, you know…/It’s more like medicine
In love/In love
I’m falling in love/ I’m falling in love
As soon as someone touches me/It’s like fuel in my tank
But don’t worry, don’t worry/My heart is beating, that’s as far as it goes
I fall in love every three days/It’s like I have this special ability
That must be the way I work inside/Powerful sensory receivers
I fall in love every Tuesday/And I’m loveless on Wednesday
What will become of me, become of me/If I still feel heartache tomorrow?
In love/In love
I fall in love/I fall in love
In love/In love
I fall in love/I fall in love
In love with greed/This cake, that cherry
In love with time on the train/If I forgot my ticket book
In love with not being bored/When I have to walk
In love to satisfy myself/When I have tears on my nose
In love, but it’s fleeting/I have effective goose bumps
In love to check/That my heart is attached
In love/In love
I fall in love/I fall in love
In love/In love
I fall in love
In love since yesterday/To keep the rust far from my arteries
In love until tomorrow/Enough time to finish my refrain
In love just in case/I have one or two eyelashes on my cheek
In love because with you/I had one the first time
In love/In love
I’m falling in love/I’m falling in love
In love/In love
Tristan
Lyrics & Music: Clio
You liked me, I liked you/Much less than I liked him, obviously
But at least as much as I like Luc or Louis/And to the extent
That if I had known you first/And if I hadn’t known him
That if I had known you before/I would have wanted you, for sure
I would have liked you, chosen you/Over Luc or Louis
I would have loved you so, my Tristan/Not having won you over before
You liked me less, it’s too bad/Who are you telling, it’s unfortunate
You liked me less than you should have/You wrote me off, Tristan, and lost
Oh Tristan, Oh Tristan
I liked you less, enough though/To cheer me up for a few moments
To shelter me when it’s bad, or whatever/Under your roof in sad times
When I’m down, or in rainy weather/It’s in your arms when I can’t be with him
While I waited for my spring to come back
Oh Tristan, Oh Tristan
It was tempting, that’s for certain/Sweet enough but surely you see
It was nice, but that’s all/Nothing amazing, nothing crazy
It wasn’t so much/It wasn’t that tempting
Don’t be silly, come on, smile/Let’s be honest, we both know
We knew quite well, it was written/We loved each other as long as you
Were on the way out/That it would be good, but not for long
That if we liked/As tempted as we might have been
That time would be over/As soon as my Tristan returned
Oh Tristan, Oh Tristan
Nous Perdre au Louvre / Getting Lost in the Louvre
Lyrics & Music: Clio
Hi, I’m bored/What are you doing today?
Bored too?/All you have to do is say yes
The sky is gray/Your eyes, too
But the Louvre is open/Yeah, it’s Friday
C’mon, hurry up/It’s not complicated, take the Métro, Line 7
From your place/We’ll be able to stay dry there
I confess/I’ve dreamed of this often
I’ve thought about it a lot/A good place for bad weather
Getting lost in the Louvre/The two of us
De la Tour, Delacroix, l’amour/Why not?
It’s true, I confess/I’ve thought about it, four sure
I dreamed about it a lot/The Louvre on a rainy day
A Friday in winter/And other things
Meeting Vermeer/By accident, in a hallway
No surprises/We’ve long since told one another about our lives
Our passions past/We know all about them
I’ve dreamed of this often/Been thinking about it for a long time
Been thinking about it for a long time/So I’ll be there waiting for you
Getting lost in the Louvre, because it’s raining
De la Tour, Delacroix, l’amour/Why not?
Let’s go, I’m bored/You’re not doing anything today
So say yes, go on, say yes
Under the grand odalisque/Her back so long, so naked
I’ll have to tell you/That you can address me as “Thou”
Without hesitation/You’ll say I’m all in…
And then, intimidated/We’ll make detours around
This intimacy
Silence, his eyes/Is he thinking about us?
De la Tour, Delacroix, l’amour/Why not?
We’ll kiss under the Mona Lisa/In front of four hundred Japanese tourists
I’ll say you are the most beautiful person in the world/And you’ll say, I was waiting for you
T’as Vu / Did You Notice?
Lyrics & Music: Clio
Hi, how are you?/Did you notice, I’m here
I’ve come home/Well, you’re already up
You were worried/But I took the keys
I didn’t go far/And I knew perfectly well
That I’d come back/There, that’s it
Hi, how are you/Did you notice, I’m here
I walked around the building/Smoked a lot
Wet my cheeks/Hit bottom
I kicked every pebble on the ground/And I came back home
Hi, how are you?/Did you notice, I’m down here
Don’t be angry/I made coffee
I brought croissants/Picked them up down the street
I did my little walk/Three times, it was nothing
I didn’t do it/To upset you
Hi, how are you/Did you notice, I’m down here
I walked around the building/Smoked a lot
Wet my cheeks/Hit bottom
I kicked every pebble on the ground/And I came home
I walked around the house/Smoked a lot
Wet my cheeks/Hit bottom
I kicked every pebble on the ground/But I was warm in your jacket
Hi, how are you?/Did you notice, I’m down here
Yes my phone/It’s in the house
I don’t like when it rings/I didn’t take it
I wasn’t mad/But I was all alone
I was all alone/Come on, it’s okay, I’m down here
“Never again”/But what did you think?
That I wouldn’t come home?/That I was going to leave?
That I enjoyed it?/Better off on the next street?
No, don’t worry/There’s nothing better than you
There’s no one better than you
I walked around the building/Smoked a lot
Wet my cheeks/Hit bottom
Kicked every pebble on the ground/And I came home
I walked around the building/Smoked a lot
Wet my cheeks/Hit bottom
I kicked every pebble on the ground/But I was warm, the whole time, in your jacket
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