Variations on a Name

Listening Post 339. Isabelle Geffroy grew up as Isa but went on stage as Zaz, the larger-than-life avatar of a shy extrovert who came to personify twenty-first century French chanson. Success didn’t spoil her but after her fourth album in 2018 she needed a break. “I was all Zaz, all outward-looking, with 100,000 projects,” she says. “The problem was that I wasn’t taking care of Isa.” During her hiatus she quit cigarettes, alcohol and coffee, became a vegetarian and got married. Now she’s back with her artistic name and an album title that represent wholeness. Isa is an exploration of fear and fragility, courage and hope. It’s more personal than her previous albums, even though she entrusted her vision to a cadre of lyricists and composers, who served her well. Her voice is a bit more nuanced, less hoarse—and still dazzling. Just as Zaz once dared to be bold on stage alone, Imagine reflects her daring to share a relationship (literally leaping into the unknown in video 1). And where she once sang of the child she hoped to have, she now chants the tender reality of Ce que tu es dans ma mie (What You Are in My Life, video 2), a love song to her stepdaughter. Love appears through the opposite end of time’s lens in Comme tu voudras (Whatever You Want, video 3), a sad-sweet pledge to her aging father. Beyond the introspective vein are songs expressing concern for the world we leave to our children, for displaced migrants and, in De couleurs vives (Bright Colors, video 4), her impatience with people who see everything in black and white. And out on the edge is Le jardin des larmes (Garden of Tears, video 5), an ambitious, soulful, Gothic, utterly unexpected duet with Rammstein frontman Till Lindemann. Altogether radiant, may Isa and Zaz never be out of balance again. (Parlophone)

Related posts. Zaz: Effet Miroir, Listening Post 190, February 26, 2019. https://worldlisteningpost.com/2019/02/26/zaz-effet-miroir/
Zaz: Paris, Listening Post 28, January 4, 2016. http://worldlisteningpost.com/2016/01/04/zaz-paris/

Zaz: Isa
Zaz: Lead vocals
Thomas Coeuriot: Acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar
Reyn: Acoustic guitar, baritone guitar, piano, organs, bass, drums, timbales, kalimba, keyboards, synthesizers
Raphaël Chassin: Drums
Baptiste Germser: French horn
Jean-Etienne Maillard: Guitar
David Hoogerheide: Programming
Till Lindemann: Guest vocals

Imagine
Lyrics & music: Barcella Laurent Lamarca

(From the French lyrics)
Imagine, imagine
Imagine, imagine

For tomorrow I imagine/A world that rhymes with you and me
On the river’s edge/Our destinies take shape and flow beyond…
Beyond the grief overflowing the plains that the victors—vain hearts—marched upon
I imagine, my love, that our time will come in better days

And if we dreamed once again/Imagine, imagine
Everything we could weave together, you and me/Imagine, imagine
And if we embraced the future in our arms/Imagine, imagine
Picture a world sweeter than this one

To hell with our routines/With the two of us, the thousands like us, all of us at once
Everything we imagine
Forge our own way/We are what we believe in
And the world lights up
A future is emerging/For the kids down here
I read your on face/This unspeakable hope
That nothing can take away

And if we dreamed once again/Imagine, imagine
Everything we could weave together, you and me/Imagine, imagine
And if we spun the future in our arms/Imagine, imagine
Picture a sweeter world than this one/Than this one

I don’t want to suffer anymore/I don’t even want to laugh about it
Or tell myself this is just the way things are/On our little ships, souls and hearts capsize
All sailors know this
And if there is a future/We’ll have to write it
In the ink of our choice/Close your eyes and breathe in
Awakening is just a smile/Under a tear of joy

What if we dreamed once again/Imagine, imagine
Everything we could weave, you and me/Imagine, imagine
And if we spun the future in our arms/Imagine, imagine
Picture a world sweeter than this/That one

Imagine, imagine

Ce que tu es dans ma vie / What You Are in My Live
Lyrics: Antoine Graugnard, Ben Mazué/Music: Davide Esposito, Jean-Étienne Maillard, Renaud Rebillaud

Today I’m the one/Who will pick you up
Hear your little voice/Telling me about your day
Watching you say anything/Just to make me laugh
And seeing you so proud of yourself/When you succeed
I wouldn’t have believed this role/Could fit so lightly on my shoulders

No matter what I am/Even if it has no name
What you are in my life/Even if it has no name
I’ll be your sister, your ally/Your friend, your rock
What we are to each other/What we are to each other
Shines
What if this is family?/What if that what we are?
Where do I sign?

It’s a bit of his eyes/That I see in yours
It’s a bit of his laugh/That I hear in yours
And if one day you say/Talking about us
That we’ve known each other for longer/Longer than anything
Then I will have held onto this role/Then I would have used my shoulders well

No matter what I am/Even if it has no name
What you are in my life/Even if it has no name
I’ll be your sister, your ally/Your friend, your rock
What we are to each other/What we are to each other
Cheïna

What if this is family?/What if that’s what we are?
Where do I sign?

Comme tu voudras / Whatver You Want
Lyrics: Olivier Volovitch/Music: Frédéric Volovitch

Have you seen how the time flies?/It’s so long since I was little
And I would run and hide/When you wanted to eat me up

Have you seen time follows its course/It’s the only thing that lasts forever
But it passes anyway/Even as we continue to love each other

When it’s necessary/I’ll take your hand in mine
To help you walk slowly/You see daddy, I don’t know
All we need to learn/To give us enough momentum
Whatever you want/Whatever you want
I’ll be there/Whatever you want

Do you see that I’m not a child anymore?/You noticed, I imagine
That I haven’t looked at you for a long time/With my childish eyes
Have you seen the water flowing under the bridge/It doesn’t care if we ask for forgiveness
We never go upstream/Against the direction of the wind

When it’s necessary/I’ll take your hand in mine
To help you walk slowly/You see daddy, I don’t know
All we need to learn/To give us enough momentum
Whatever you want/Whatever you want
I’ll be there/Whatever you want

Do you see there is nothing eternal?/Even stars in the sky
Thousands of light years away/They may have died yesterday
Did you remember I made a promise/That with all our clumsiness
We’ll find the way/To achieve our ends

When it’s necessary/I’ll take your hand in mine
To help you walk slowly/You see daddy, I don’t know
All we need to learn/To give us enough momentum
Whatever you want/Whatever you want
I’ll be there/Whatever you want
I’ll be there/Whatever you want
I won’t forget/Whatever you wish
Do you see, daddy?

De couleurs vives / Bright Colors
Lyrics: Julie Prouha/Music: Jules Jaconelli, Sylvain Duthu, Tibz

All this gossip/Who says black, who says white
So it’s your name or your skin/That determines your rank
I can’t breathe anymore/Under the weight of this stupidity
Same blood, same moon [all of us]/Whatever they say, whatever they say
All this “I-we” is so heavy/That some are canceled, run into the ground
Their only crime?/To be born to their mothers
I can’t breathe anymore/Under the weight of this stupidity
The same blood, the same moon/Whatever they say

I want to live and laugh, free/I’m a woman of bright colors
And that means everything/I want to live and laugh, free
I’m a woman of bright colors/And that means everything
Bright colors

Sometimes there are days/When the sky is so beautiful
That I start, I admit/To envy the birds
To be only a witness/To our inhuman acts
And be able to fly…/Fly to other tomorrows

I think of you often/All you deceivers
Who divide everyone and everything/I think of you often
You who trample on us/I’m disappointed, really

So I pray that the wind/Will bring you back to us
So I pray for the wind/To change everything

I want to live and laugh, free/I’m a woman of bright colors
And that means everything/I want to live and laugh, free
I’m a woman of bright colors/And that means everything
Bright colors/Bright colors

I leave them to time, these fetid stories
I keep myself, it’s true/From speaking up
So I sing a little/Everyone does their best

I want to live and laugh, free/I’m a woman of bright colors
And that means everything/I want to live and laugh, free
I’m a woman of bright colors/And that means everything
I want to live and laugh, free/I’m a woman of bright color
Bright colors/Bright colors

Le jardin des larmes / Garden of Tears
Lyrics: Till Lindemann/Music: Myriam Perez, Thierry Faure

Every evening I enter with you/Into this little garden of tears
Every night I place my heart/Into your bosom of flowers

Yesterday your kiss was like honey
But the fruit tastes salty

Hello sadness, every day/I feel so alone with you
I hate you my love/Oh, yes, I am your punishment

I’m sad all day/From daybreak until evening
No nightingale to sing/And all because of me

La, la-la-la, la-la-la/The trees cry with me
La, la-la-la, la-la-la/We cry from the depths of our souls

Every evening I enter with you/Into this little garden of tears
Every night I place my heart/Into your bosom of flowers

Yesterday your kiss was like honey
But the fruit tastes salty

It’s so calm in the garden of tears/When nightingales yearn under the stars
It’s so calm in the garden of tears/I enter my little kingdom of tears

In your little kingdom of tears/Every night I cry
It’s as good for flowers/As it is for my poor heart

La, la-la-la, la-la-la/The trees cry with me
La, la-la-la, la-la-la/Our souls cry from their depths

Every evening I enter with you/In this little garden of tears
Every night I place my heart/Into your bosom of flowers

Yesterday your kiss was like honey/But the fruit tastes salty
Yesterday your kiss was like honey/Now you smile from the sky

It’s so calm in the garden of tears