Amnesty as Art
Listening Post 392. On Sains & Saufs (Safe & Sound), Zaz opens with Je pardonne, a declaration of forgiveness: “I forgive from the bottom of my heart,” she sings, with intimacy and grace, “Nothing haunts me, nothing stops me/No hard feelings, no debts” (video 1). The song springs from an ember that Zaz (Isabelle Geffroy) has carried for years. On stage and in the studio, she is a force of nature who transforms what some might consider an imperfection—a hoarse and slightly cracked voice—into an asset. The larger challenge as she has gone from one success to another has been from less audible faults—adolescent drug addiction, heavy drinking and smoking for much of her career and an acute sensitivity to a minority of detractors, almost to the exclusion of manifest critical acclaim and fan adulation. Insecurity seems only to have fueled her work and her art—a layering of traditional French chanson and jazz, with Latin and soul rhythms. She has faced her demons in song before, but she continues to probe. The new album, her sixth, is a sort of reckoning, an assertion of self-control as well as amnesty for her detractors and for herself. As usual, Zaz has help from outstanding collaborators, above all from Belgian singer-songwriter Noé Preszow, who wrote six of the collection’s 13 songs. The mood is mostly upbeat, notably on the title track, about rolling with life’s punches (video 2), and with Mon Sourire (My Smile, video 3), focused on self-acceptance. There are more pensive takes as well: J’imagine que tu sais (I Suppose You Know, video 4) echoes dreams unrealized, while Au pays des merveilles (In Wonderland, video 5) reflects past drug abuse. Perhaps the greatest marvel is that whether Zaz is leaning into attitude or into reflection, whether she’s making art imitate life or life imitate art, she is always connecting, always enchanting. (VF Musiques/Tôt ou Tard/Anthakarana)

Related posts. Zaz: Paris, Listening Post 28, January 4, 2016  http://worldlisteningpost.com/2016/01/04/zaz-paris/

Zaz: Effet Miroir, Listening Post 190, February 26, 2019 https://worldlisteningpost.com/2019/02/26/zaz-effet-miroir/

Zaz: Isa, Listening Post 339, March 8, 2022 https://worldlisteningpost.com/2022/03/08/zaz-isa/

Note: Zaz’s song Je veux (I Want), from her eponymous 2010 debut album, is #117 on the World Listening Post list of “The Global 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” https://worldlisteningpost.com/the-global-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-page-2/

Je pardonne / I Forgive
Lyrics & music: Noé Preszow

(From the French lyrics)
I forgive to forget/I forgive to breathe
To stop twisting/The knives in my wounds
I forgive to make space/To let my anxieties slide
And to recognize the child/That I was in the mirror

I forgive against all odds/Let it rain, snow, let the wind blow
To escape the grip/Of dark years, of gray sprits

I forgive the past, the future/For the screams and for the whispers
So that those who hurt me/Are left alone with their unclean hands
I forgive rightly and wrongly/Bitterness is not my home
Anger but not resentment/Vexation without spite

I forgive and I want to hope/That I may also be forgiven
I forgive you, I forgive myself/But I remember everything
That I was made fun of/For my face, for my voice
For my risks and for my choices/Of course it stays there

But I gather the crumbs/And I forgive from the bottom of my heart
Nothing haunts me, nothing stops me/No hard feelings, no debts
And for everything I wasn’t told/All the “I love yous” and “Thank yous”
That continue to resound/From a throat or in the air
Everything I wasn’t given/I went to get
I forgive absence/In the lack and the silence

I forgive rightly and wrongly/Bitterness is not my home
Rage but not resentment/Anger, but not bitterness
I forgive and I want to hope/That I may also be forgiven
I forgive you, I forgive myself/But I remember everything

I forgive right and left/To experience the light
Days that are born, days that die/Every spark, every glow
I forgive and I want to hope/That I may also be forgiven
I forgive you, I forgive myself/But I remember everything

Sains et saufs / Safe and Sound
Lyrics: Zaz, Laurent Lamarca, Jean-Etienne Maillard / Music: Laurent Lamarca, Jean-Etienne Maillard

We don’t fit into boxes/We weren’t made to live in cages
We’re not the same, we’re crazy/We’re multifaceted, we’re a bit hazy
If it’s just to fit in a little/If it’s just to be wary
To make us walk within the lines/In secret, on our knees

Come on, let’s move on, my love/Look at what they’re playing
You and me like we’ve never been, my love/Entirely us

Let it go, let it drop, my love/We’re not supposed to act like wolves
We’re abandoned diamonds, my love/Safe and sound
Safe and sound/Because love saves you from everything

There are days when I have the blues/There are days when we see red
With hands covering our eyes/When we want to please everything that moves
It’s enough to drive you mad/And so much to say we should be silent
When there’s every reason to break the rules/To ignore the boundaries

And the sun can shine, my love/On us, little jewels
You and me like we’ve never been, my love/Entirely us

Let it go, let it drop, my love/We’re not supposed to act like wolves
We’re neglected diamonds, my love/Safe and sound
Safe and sound/Because love saves you from everything
 (Because love saves you from everything)

Our faces are full of scratches/We catch up, we start again
We’re not caricatures/We don’t bow down
Come on, let’s move on, my love/Look at what they’re playing
You and me like we’ve never been, my love/Totally us

Let it go, let it drop, my love/We’re not supposed to act like wolves
We’re neglected diamonds, my love/Safe and sound
Safe and sound/’Cause love saves you from everything

Mon sourire
Lyrics: Zaz, Mathieu Ladevèze/Music: Mathieu Ladevèze

It’s not because I sing with love on my lips
It’s not because I try to caress my dreams/That I ignore the miseries of this world
Like you, I’m aware that the wheel of life is cruel/Like you, in the end I’ll burn my wings
Whoever seeks the light must embrace the shadows/And too bad if I fall

All I have is my smile/To wipe away our burnt tears
To ease our aching hearts/And to sing about our dusty lives
Nothing but my joy in life to offer/To the moon children
Since here on earth, it all comes down/To searching within ourselves for light
This is what I hope

Of course, I have tears in my eyes when faced with distress/Of course, my heart races when I hear cries of SOS
But this sun inside me will not fade away/Oh no, oh no.
I prefer to huddle with those who have nothing/Help us build a better tomorrow
That’s how I am, and it’s well worth the joy/And it’s well worth the joy…

All I have is my smile/To wipe away the burnt tears
To ease our aching hearts/And to sing about a thousand miseries
Nothing but my joy in life to offer/To the moon children
Since here on earth, it all comes down/To searching within ourselves for light
And so what if I lose in the process?

It’s not because I laugh and forget our sorrows/It’s not because I smile when I’m on stage
That I’m insensitive to the ugly things in this world/I like to tell myself that life is a gift from heaven
I dance in the rain like a rebellious child/And I sing about the break in the clouds when thunder rumbles

All I have is my smile/To wipe away the burnt tears
To ease our aching hearts/And to sing about our dusty lives
Nothing but my pleasure in life to offer/To the moon children
Since here on earth, it all comes down/To searching within ourselves for light

All I have is my smile/To wipe away the burnt tears
To ease our aching hearts/And to sing about our dusty lives
Nothing but my joy in life to offer/To the moon children
Since here on earth, it all comes down/To making love in times of war
This is what I hope

J’imagine que tu sais
Lyrics & music: Raphaël Haroche

I suppose you know/That teens jump off rocks
Girls at the country club/Have never been so tanned
I suppose you know/That new leather doesn’t really do anything for me anymore

I suppose you know/That tequilas are ice cold
We rubbed salt in our wounds/I suppose you know
That to coming back from the bar/I had to be carried

I suppose that you know/That I think about you endlessly
When night falls
I suppose you know/That I think about you endlessly
Every night, I hear your heart beating/Crazy, crazy

I suppose you know/That I think about the Federation of Sadness in the Ministry of Misery
I suppose you know/That we are hiring for construction sites this winter
Cars rust in the scrapyard where they are sent

I suppose you know/That I think about you endlessly
Even when a dream of death crashes to the ground
I suppose you know/That I think about you endlessly
Every night I hear your heartbeat

I’ve searched the streets/I’ve searched rivers
In all the backyards/In my hair
In my bedsheets at dawn
For just one pure heart
For just one pure heart

Au pays des merveilles
Lyrics & music: Noé Preszow

I wouldn’t want a call one night/Telling me you’d slipped away
Because your locomotive/Went off the rails
I wouldn’t want to hear one night/They’d found you in the bushes
Because some sneaky substance/Tripped you up

Come on, tell me what you need/I’d rather you went and robbed a bank
Than see you like this/You don’t need… don’t need that
Leave that crap to the dealers/Leave that crap to the liars
Come on, tell me what you need/Come on, we’ll see where it’s hiding

I want you back/I want you to remember
I want you to remember/I want you to come back down
So you really hear me/So you really hear me

I want you back/I want you to remember
I want you to remember/I want you to come back down
So you really hear me/So you really hear me

I don’t want get a note one night/Saying that with too many pills under your tongue
You took your last trip/For a bag of mirages
I wouldn’t want to get yelled at one night/Discovering that I should have known you were alone
And that despite the rescue/And despite all the love
You stayed trapped down there/In Wonderland or wherever
Filling some hustler’s pockets/By frying your brain

I want you back/I want you to remember
I want you to remember/I want you to come back down
So you really hear me/So you really hear me
I want you back/I want you to remember
I want you to remember/I want you to come back down
So you really hear me/So you really hear me

So you’d remember your own face/And that you’d turn the page
Dreaming you’d become it all/Singer, actress, all those dreams
That consumed you night and day/Till you forgot the absence of love
That consumed you by day, by night/Because that’s how life goes

No, I’m not preaching/Honestly, I think it’s even normal
Wanting to break away from it all/To fly off to the farthest edge

But there’s gotta be a way out/An adventure around the corner
Don’t say you’ve lost it all/I’m sure it’s still inside you
I feel it/I see it
I see it