Elie Zoé - Shifting Forms
Shifting into high gear
Now the masculine must be used when talking about Elie Zoé, ex Emilie Zoé. In retrospect, his "Hello Future Me" from 2022 now takes on a whole new meaning.
So with just a slightly deeper range, we stay almost in familiar territory and the whole thing works very well.
In fact, from the beginning of "The Whole of the Moon" (smell of "Tiger Song", his former little hit) I knew. I knew that the style was still there, sometimes jerky sometimes tenuous, overall rock. I knew that the album would probably be as good. It is.
And at the end of the day, my heart is going to explode with all these good verses and all these good choruses and all these good riffs.
Articulating carefully, which facilitates understanding while strengthening contact with the listener, the artist thinks as much about himself as about the future of the human race, in connection with trees and animals ("Contact Zone").
The bad point goes to the artwork (photo, booklet), rather banal. I can't help but think that there was probably better to do.
On the purely musical side, I'm not disorientated eventually. I love what this being does – always. Zoé remains Zoé. (Initially, if I remember correctly, it is not the last name but the middle name.) And now the masculine must be used when talking about him. So what?
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"The Whole of the Moon" would have benefited from being shorter. On the other hand, "Change my Name", a long manifesto (6:52) going through many twists and turns, including a background of (telephone?) chatter in French is saved by its nice finale. You can feel the relief after the hurricane under a skull, and probably in a body. Far beyond words.
Almost as long (5:56), the final track, "How We Break", minimalist arrangements, takes the time to raise the level very high; its emotional lift plays with our nerves. It is impossible to remain insensitive. Really impossible. -
The Whole of the Moon
How We Break
Contact Zone -
Change my Name
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The sentence
“We have a lot to ask, and we will” ("Dormant Plants")
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himeliezoe.com (13 Hits)
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...And now, listen!
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Created10 October 2025


