Johnny Hallyday delivers an exceptional posthumous album

Thursday melodies - Jonas Follonier

We said he was dead; he's still here. At least his music, and his ability to sell phenomenal quantities of copies: Johnny Hallyday's fifty-first and final studio album was released posthumously on October 19, 2018. With 780,177 units sold while the album topped the sales charts, My country is love was the best-selling album of all time in France! But it's from an artistic point of view that we must praise this opus. Here we listen to and present a work that is more vibrant than ever.

Partly recorded in Los Angeles in spring 2017 when the singer already knew he was suffering from lung cancer, then a few months before his death in Paris, My country is love is a misnomer. It should be called: My country is life. For what this final album demonstrates is the desire to exist that burned in Johnny's body and heart. This attachment to the living is conveyed by ten sung tracks - the album also includes an instrumental - which in turn exude the love of life and the fear of death.

«Forgive me
If you dreamed of another me, another life
How can I cheat death when it smiles?
One more time, one more night
Forgive me
[...]
If I tremble
If I no longer fear farewells
If I fall
Tell me, what could I have done better?»

Forgive meThis is undoubtedly one of the most gripping tracks on this album, which is also gripping as a whole.

Coherent music, lyrics that hit the nail on the head

Ah! a coherent album, that alone is a praiseworthy characteristic in Johnny, who has not always been sparing with the people involved in writing, composing and producing his albums. Take an old «variétoche» album like the one he released in the seventies with That's life (1977), where only a few tracks stand out, or a pop product such as My truth (2005): it's all bricks and mortar. Here, the sublime trilogy begun with Staying alive (2014) and Of love (2015) concludes in masterly fashion, with Yodelice responsible for the artistic direction and composition of all the tracks, collaborating with Yarol Poupaud on four of them.

And that's not all. As we've already pointed out, the lyrics are spot on, which was no easy feat either! We particularly salute the work of Yohann Malory, who wrote the lyrics for Forgive me, but also A child of the century and I'm just a man (which closes the album), the three songs recorded in Los Angeles in spring 2017. All three take stock of a man's life, aware that he's leaving soon - and leaving soon. The lyrics of I'll tell the devil, which opens the album as a Johnny-style masterpiece.

«If ever I'm told I've betrayed
So I don't flinch
If I'm ever told I lied
So I don't raise
For the day will come to answer for my actions
And I won't hide
Yes, the day will come to respect the pact
And he alone will hear me

I'll tell the devil
If the time comes
To sit at his table
And tell my truth
I'll tell the devil
He'll listen to me
The innocent, the guilty
The man I once was»

A performance that leaves you speechless

I'll tell the devil is the best example of as noted by the daily Le TempsWith this posthumous album, we're dealing with pure Johnny, true Hallyday rock. It's a straightforward song, not shy about its message, but entirely in keeping with both the rock tradition and that of French chanson. It's a noble cry, proud tears, it's a Johnny who fulfills himself - and who knows it - by following the line of these moving anthems, as he has done at different periods in his career, following the example of It'll never end in 2009, A few screams in 1999, Envy in 1986, Behind the love in 1976 and That I love you in 1969, to name but a few.

Music, lyrics and production are one thing, but interpretation is another. With Johnny, of course, it's the most important dimension. This time, the media are unanimous: what a voice! Even though he was suffering from lung cancer, Johnny Hallyday seems to have brought out a vocal power, from deep in his guts, fogged with a very special emotion that had never been heard on any album before. An unquestionable vocal mastery, in short, which can be heard on this beautiful blues where Johnny slips into the skin of a prisoner:

In the end, what hurts listening to this album - because, for those who loved Johnny, it's not all good - is thinking that it would have sounded so good on a stage. As Johnny was well aware, this album was originally recorded to launch a new blues-rock tour with the musicians who had surrounded him for several years already, the famous band led by guitarist Yarol Poupaud. Just imagine the show interpretation would have represented live of Rolling Stones-style rock, where Johnny seems to be having the time of his life, accompanied by backing vocals from Amy Keys and Carmel Helene Gaddis, and horns arranged by Darrell Leonard:

So, despite an instrumental interlude that could have been done without (Interlude is only the string orchestration composed by Yvan Cassar for I'll tell the devil and not retained in the final mix), a title track My country is love but less profound, where Johnny shows that he still knows how to raise his high notes and a Fall again very effective but too smooth (and whose lyrics, composed by a fan, do not reach the top), Johnny Hallyday's posthumous album is indeed exceptional and closes the doors, not of the penitentiary, but of a career of a man also exceptional, and Made in rock'n roll. Farewell, artist.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com