Paléo Festival 2019 - Jonas Follonier
At the close of this eventful Paléo, Patrick Bruel stood out for his effective mutation. A new look for his musical style and his clothes. The new Bruel is born, with the same flaws as the old one. When it comes to analysis, we simply have to bow down to the performer.
He now wears sneakers white, the kind worn by all young people. He's not in the mud of the plain, so he can afford it. I'd already noticed them when he recently interviews I see that he also wears them on stage. A detail, of course, but it's the detail that counts, as the our journalistic idols gonzo French. Bruel has switched from a jacket to a blazer, another slight sartorial change heralding a major inflection in his musical style.
But even before he appears on the big stage, I'm already annoyed by Patrick. The man we've yet to see addresses Nyon in a voice that couldn't be more dramatic and theatrical, with words worthy of cul-cul-land: «Hi! How are you? Did you come? See you at last!» and other wordy calamities. And it works. I tell myself the world is screwed up, even more so when the guy appears and the first song he sings is based on the same lyrics. With one exception: «Where's Lola?» In short, I understood absolutely nothing of what was going on. In preparing this article, I learn that it's a remake electro of How are things going for you? - I apologize to all admirers for this incident.
I like the lighting. The audiovisual effects, too. Great showmanship. It has to be said that Patrick Bruel has the means to do whatever he wants. This is a poker game where he bets everything he's got to please the audience. And that's precisely Bruel's new great skill: adapting to today's listeners. This is evident on his new songs, of course, featured on the album Tonight we're going out, but also on the re-orchestration of her old songs performed live on stage. It's enough to make you wonder about the electro-pop turn taken by the interpreter of Au Café des délices. But after all, he's a variety singer, so anything is possible in terms of arrangements, and contemporary ears are crazy about this kind of rhythm. So he did the right thing.
Those who, like me, are not necessarily fans of this very smooth, summery musical register will no doubt have preferred the more sober moments of the concert. Those in which the singer-songwriter played his most touching standards alone on guitar, such as Who has the right or the song I forgot to live at the end of the show in tribute to his great friend Johnny Hallyday. Here we found ourselves in the purest of musical emotions: an instrument, a voice, an audience singing along. I'd never prefer the authenticity of summer hit candidates such as his single recent Stand up also performed at the end of the concert.
Beyond this purely subjective assessment of the two musical genres involved in this recital, we must salute the approach of a singer who is searching for himself and who knows how to bounce back when he needs to in order to appeal to a wide audience. The first drawback is that the artist really believes he's doing it. With «it's amazing» and leaps into the air, Patrick Bruel is almost reminiscent of Maître Gims at times. Worse still, his famous false modesty still sticks to him - that's the second downside. The most touching moments of show would have been even more so if the singer had refrained from looking at the crowd for a minute before saying «It's magical what's just happened, it's you who did everything, the vocals, the lights, I was just the modest guitarist.»
In any case, there's no need to fear for him: his loyal fans have always known him like this, and will continue to do so. And judging by the crowd on the Plaine de l'Asse that evening, Bruel will remain a great man for a long time to come.
Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com
Photo credits: © Paléo / Nicolas Patault
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