In February, the Victoires de la Musique awarded the prize for male artist of the year to two heavyweights – an oxymoronic tie: Vianney, harmless pop and Gazo, explosive rap. If the kingdom of French-speaking hip-hop crowns and dethrones faster than its shadow, we can hardly have missed Gazo. At 30 years old, with fine dreadlocks and big chains, he sits on a repertoire that is worth gold – or platinum, as he accumulates hundreds of millions of streams. And if he already has several projects under his belt, Gazo affirms: Apocalypse is his first album.
The first track of the record, the tenebrous Suresets the context. It is first of all by drillthis sub-genre with dark and brutal trappings, which Ibrahima Diakité stood out – the gangster atmosphere fitting perfectly with his big metallic voice, with which he exorcises a youth spent between the streets and homes. But Gazo, soon out of his depth, gradually turned, like many of his friends, towards melodic instrumentals and more “radiophilic” collaborations.
On ApocalypseGazo continues its conquest of the sea, expanding its sound palette through numerous featurings, conceived as hits: R’n’B echoes with Yamê, electro-pop with Jul, zouk with the Congolese Fally Ipupa, melancholic piano with Orelsan. Well surrounded, he tells his story more than ever, between difficult childhood, fame and seduction. On the networks, we criticize him for watering down, we regret his twilight drill. “Gazo has become a chirp,” Booba quipped on X. “Men lie, but not eavesdroppers,” retorted the person concerned. With 6 million listens in twenty-four hours, Apocalypse is an undeniable blockbuster. Virginie Nussbaum
Gazo, «Apocalypse» (Epic Records)
Hozier in hit heaven
With Hozier, it all started at church. Remember: ten years ago, Take Me to Churcha half-rock, half-gospel anthem criticizing Catholic morality with inhabited “amens”, became a hit – and soon, a cult following. Enough to propel a young Irishman, who had initially recorded the said piece in his parents’ attic, from the shadows to the light. Hozier (a piece of his last name) is 24 years old, with a fuzzy ponytail and we see him as an opponent of homophobia in a relatively conservative country – the music video for Take Me to Church depicted the relationship of two men.
He continues his momentum, with two albums where blues-rock becomes serious, sensual and epic – readily carrying socio-political themes. And then, which is never guaranteed, Hozier has a second global hit. This spring, a leaping cry from the heart addressed to a lover too “watered down” for him, Too Sweet conquers TikTok and the rest of the world with it. Hozier, now a pop idol, becomes the first Irish artist to occupy the top spot on the Hot 100 since Sinead O’Connor and her Nothing Compares 2 U in 1990.
More popular than ever, Hozier, also a lover of poetry and beekeeping, is releasing this month a reissue of his third album, Unreal Unearth. We find there Too Sweet and 25 other titles, an eclectic collection where literary metaphors (but never pompous) collide with torments and burning desires. A bit of hell and heaven. V.N.
Hozier, «Unreal Unearth: Unending» (Rubyworks Records)
Jim, the return of a barber who cuts a precious folk
Immediately, these two voices intertwine and instantly provoke a thrill of happiness, between reverie and melancholy. Those of Cynthia and Mario Weiss, a couple of Friborg musicians, also pianist for her and guitarist for him, who reactivate after seven of silence Jim the Barber & His Shiny Blades, this group exploring country-folk regions formed in 2011 after years more electric (Tasteless, Black Cargoes). Perfectly supported by double bassist Marie Riley and guitarist Thomas Rueger, the duo at the heart of the project sings about love and loss, mourning and resilience.
Songs to Remember is the third album by Jim the barber (pseudonym chosen by Mario Weiss on the occasion of an evening dedicated by Fri-Son to solo artists) and his fine blades, and it is also the most stripped down and fragile, but perhaps the most beautiful. In just over 30 minutes for nine songs, without drums, without opulent arrangements, the French-speaking quartet reaches perfection in its way of offering folk melodies on the edge, which are based on a few deceptively simple chords opening onto vast imaginations. Stéphane Gobbo
Jim the Barber and His Shiny Blades, «Songs to Remember» (N One)
Marie Jay, bubbles of youth
From the outset, we admit to cheating a little: Marie Jay’s first EP, Scooterwas published at the beginning of November. But the Lausanne resident remembered us fondly by winning the Tataki Awards, a French-speaking media competition aimed at 15-25 year olds which allows the public to elect, among nine young artists, their revelation of the year.
Revelation therefore that this Marie Jay, shy twenty-something, kawaii buns and baggy look. However, she was not born recently, she who played the songs, the festival stages and walked the courses of the Gustav Academy of Fribourg, refining over the years an electro-pop universe all her own. She gives us a concentrated one on this EP, nice collection of six titles that flow, agile and light like the Scooter of the title. And like so many half-open windows on youth, in all that is most heartbreaking, also most trivial: romantic disillusionment (Band-aid), ambivalent relationship to evenings (Fomo)letter to a rival (Julieluck of Jolene Gen Z version)… The melodies are unstoppable and the words simple. This sincerity is Marie Jay’s charm, as is her ability to encapsulate the turpitudes of coming of age with nostalgia and tenderness. Bubbles to catch at the Lausanne Docks on January 14. V.N.
Marie Jay, “Scooter”
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