We’ll just have to get used to the idea. Not only does there exist a Neuchâtel rap scene, but it is also unique, sharp, bubbling, surprising. Fans knew the two impeccable albums of Murmures Barbares, and the surrealist performances of AbSTRAL compost, author of an exciting Nebulae in 2024. They can without hesitation add the ten titles of Sky blue tearfirst opus of the combo Cinq, which, as its name does not indicate, has four members: a drummer, a keyboardist and two rappers. Everyone takes their full place in these compositions with unusual structures, freed from the verse-chorus shackles, a series of movements which follow one another with coherence even from one piece to another. The sound is ample, the atmosphere atmospheric, the rhythms precise and the voices perfectly complementary – whether rapped, sung or modulated. Cinq is a continuation of groups like Glauque or Odezenne, who practice free, evolving, poetic rap designed for the stage – but we feel that the members of the group draw on more diverse influences, from the most confidential to the most known. There’s Orelsan in a few sentences, Kanye West period 808s & Heartbreak in certain refined passages. From start to finish, the emotion passes Five out of five. Lionel Pittet
Five, “Sky Blue Tear” (Irascible Music)
Goodbye Ivan, the open work
Enter a museum; sit in front of a work; try to translate into music what it transmits to you. Doesn’t that sound good? Call Arnaud Sponar (you will catch him more easily under his pseudonym: Goodbye Ivan). At the beginning of this year, the Geneva Museum of Art and History had the rich idea of offering him a sound carte blanche to showcase during The order of things, the temporary exhibition of the great diverter Wim Delvoye. Arnaud therefore surveyed the MAH thus remodeled; he certainly sat here or there; he set in motion, facing the works, the large instrumentarium (guitar, bass, piano, synths, percussion, machines) which populates his head and his hands. An intimate orchestra that he mastered as an autodidact, to the point of putting us to shame (only the trumpet refuses him, he told us one day, which brought a little balm to our hearts). The result of this in-depth stroll takes the form of a series of pieces that don’t care about categorizations: they move from neo-classicism to cellar blues, from epectase organ to nitrogenous post-punk. Nothing categorizable there; just a series of intelligent dialogues between the wave and the solid, and each time some really beautiful escapes. Philip Simon
Goodbye Ivan, “The Order of Things” (Helvet Underground)
Clara Luciani, mother and life
We left it somewhere on a dancefloor, between a disco ball and disco synths. 3 years ago, Clara Luciani triumphed with Hearthis second album pegged to the Michel Berger years. Jubilant pulsations like so many antidotes to post-confinement heartache, enough to confirm, if necessary, its status as a grenade of French song.
Since then, Juliette Armanet has burst into flames, Zaho de Sagazan and Clara Ysé have flown away and Clara Luciani has given birth to a little boy. It was during her pregnancy that My bloodthird disc driven by a “quest for identity” – this need to understand oneself before giving oneself to another being. Put away the sequinned jacket: these 13 tracks dig more into pop-rock – although tinged here and there with echoes sixties.
Simple, effective and delicate melodies as she likes them, to celebrate the threads that bind Clara Luciani – to her future child (My blood), to his mother (My mother), to his loves (Everything for me), to those friends from whom we sometimes separate even if we don’t talk about it (Friend’s sorrow), to the version of herself who launched into music in 2010, within the group La Femme (Come on). The sentimentality could have weakened this round of statements. This means counting without the sobriety with which Clara Luciani juggles between the intimate and the universal. After dancing until she’s dizzy, she slows down and, without fuss, puts her heart on the table. All we have to do is taste. V.N.
Clara Luciani, “My Blood” (Romance Music/Universal)
Linkin Park, new beginning
Seven years of silence. It is the duration that separates From Zerothe new Linkin Park album, from its predecessor One More Light. Seven years of mourning also after the suicide of Chester Bennington, its historic singer. A tragic death from which the Californian group emblematic of the nu metal movement at the turn of the millennium could never have recovered. When Linkin Park announced in September the arrival of Emily Armstrong from the group Dead Sara to take over from Chester Bennington, some fans did not accept it. “Heavy is the crown“, heavy is the crown, as the new duo Mike Shinoda and Emily Armstrong sing, one of the singles from this album full of symbolism.
And listening, it is clear that this new beginning is a success. Replacing Chester Bennington is impossible as his personality has marked the image and texts of Linkin Park. But Emily Armstrong delivers a performance that fits perfectly with the sounds of the band. The arrival of the singer also marks a return to a heavier sound and screammoving closer to the first albums, when the group had taken a decidedly more pop turn. The whole thing is definitely a success, combining elements that made Linkin Park successful at its origins and its more recent developments, with a special mention for the songs Two Faced et Good Things Gowhich closes this album. Etienne Meyer-Vacherand
Linkin Park, «From Zero» (Warner Records)
Kim Deal, finally alone
It all starts with a gently strummed guitar, hushed drums and a bittersweet voice. Then suddenly brass instruments come in, giving Kim Deal the air of a crooner. Eponymous track from the American musician’s first solo album, Nobody Loves You More is of a very autumnal sweetness. Coast then digs this groove with its more folk melody, before Crystal Breath does not return – as we expected – with more rock and harsh sounds. Because if Kim Deal publishes her first solo album at the age of 63, no one will ignore that the native of Dayton, Ohio, is a great lady of the alternative scene. In 1986, she joined the Pixies in Boston, one of the most influential groups, with Sonic Youth, from the end of the 20th century.ecentury, of which she will be the bassist and second voice until 2013. At the same time, she will found with her twin Kelley The Breeders (the hit Cannonball1993).
There’s a lot more we could say, but let’s get to the basics: Nobody Loves You More is an excellent album, blowing hot and cold in 35 minutes, going from comforting folk-rock (Are You Mine?, Wish I Was) to rougher sounds (Disobedience, Big Ben Beat) for better and better. We hope that she will cross the Atlantic next year to present this to us. Stéphane Gobbo
Kim Deal, «Nobody Loves You More» (4AD)
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