Carla Bruni
Comme si de rien n'était

To avoid misunderstandings, let's make it clear right away that this album by Madame Bruni is a pure divertissement, just like the two previous ones. The life of a millionaire model must be really boring if Carla had to reinvent herself as a singer-songwriter to fill her empty days. Let's also overlook her weak and husky voice. Vocal power is not one of her strong suits, but she has still managed to mix it with the allusiveness of French with more than good results.

With the premises out of the way, let's analyze her latest album. Finally, Carla returns to handling French, which she masters perfectly, abandoning the English experiment of the previous album, good but undermined by not exactly excellent English pronunciation. The title "Comme si de rien n'était" reveals to us that despite Carla's fortunate marriage and her new dimension as première dame de France, her life has remained more or less the same as always. And her life is the main topic of this album, very autobiographical and fortunately sincere. From a rich girl of the upper-class Turin, raised in France and spoiled by luxury and catwalks, one would expect a bland and artificial personality. Carla, on the other hand, knows how to perfectly mold her experiences and emotions, presenting them to us through musical, poetic, and witty lyrics. It's evident that the girl is cultured and knows her way with words. A bit less with her voice and guitar skills, but that's another story.

Listening to the songs, it is noticeable that the vaguely bluesy vein of the first album has somewhat disappeared. That doesn't mean Carla has turned to the shores of easy melodies. Quite the contrary, she manages to bring a lot of variety to this work. "Ma jeunesse" immediately shows us this change. Continuing, we encounter "La possibilité d’une île", whose lyrics were written by the writer Houellebecq. It's a polished and heartfelt song, very introspective. Following this, there is the launch single "L'amoureuse", a song which, like many others by Carla, presents the compelling structure of a nursery rhyme. Excellent violins, musicality of the text, and the ethereal atmosphere it creates. A simple and sincere declaration of love. "Tu es ma came" resumes the blues shades of the past, with a hint of transgression (but just a hint) in the lyrics. Particularly delicate and heartfelt is "Salut Marin", dedicated to her brother who died a few years ago. The song perfectly reproduces a fresh and maritime setting, in line with her brother's passion, which was sailing. "Ta tienne" is instead accompanied by percussion and flutes with a vaguely Middle Eastern flavor. Here too, the same euphoria of the previous "L'amoureuse" returns. Moving forward, we stumble upon the first of two covers, Bob Dylan’s "You belong to me". Good to tell the truth, faithful to the simplicity of the original, and with a harmonica that's not at all affected. The following songs closely recall French music, even the older ones like Brassens, with their melodic and playful pace. Carla's taste for blues returns to make a wink with "Notre grand amour est mort", a disenchanted song full of lightness. The album finally concludes with the cover of "Il vecchio e il bambino" by Guccini. The instrumental part is good, asymmetrical and disordered. A bit less so the vocal part, supported by a voice perhaps (it depends on tastes) too feeble. However, Carla manages to convey the idea of desolation that underlies the song.

After this analysis, why give this album a 4? Because essentially Carla Bruni manages to make excellent use of the few tools at her disposal, especially her voice, and to dress it in truly commendable expressiveness. Her voice is weak but still able to communicate emotions, much more than certain powerful, too powerful voices. I believe that good music doesn't necessarily depend on technical difficulty, but also on the coherence between means and contents. From this point of view, Carla Bruni is a more than coherent artist.