January 6, 2026
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...
December 19, 2024
Love & Legacy Listening Post 384. Dadju and Tayc are both on the shortlist of today’s leading French singer-songwriters, so when they envisioned a joint album they had every reason to be optimistic about success. Still, they left little to chance: Months in...
July 5, 2022
Sweet Sorrow Listening Post 350. Are the words Nour refers to in the title of her fourth album elegant because they are raw, or because they are believed—or is it both? From the lyric ambiguity we can’t be sure, and that seems to be the elegant point. The album...
July 2, 2018
True Lies Listening Post 157. Florent Nouvel has a child’s sense of wonder and a director’s flair for composition. He simultaneously reveals and fabricates—his Facebook bio describes him as “le plus grand chanteur” of France (6 feet, 6 inches, or 1.99m)—and in...
March 12, 2018
On the Street Where You Sing Listening Post 141. There’s a vein of Pygmalion to Eskelina Svanstein’s career in French chanson—just substitute divergent nationalities for social classes and allot more harmony to the goals of student and teachers. The story opens with a...
