Matthieu Malon - Bancal

Wobbly but worthy.

The cover even gives us a short definition of ‘bancal’, right in the middle of Matthieu’s forehead.
Which means wobbly, but should he be straightened out? Should he be put back on the right path? Certainly not!
Let's examine this album.

The style? While the sharp electric guitars are back ("C'Est Bien Parce que C'Est Toi"), thunderous bass lines can also be noticed ("Un Secret pour Personne", "Les Orties"), it’s obvious he has also been hired as a bass player in a band.
So, sometimes energetic sometimes heavy rock music, which does not exclude a few pop songs ("La Nuit ne nous Suffit pas"), which you will sing in the shower I'm sure.

The vocals? A bit like Arno Alyvan with Claire Denamur, Matthieu seems to sing better when accompanied by Diane Borderieux (Grife). Good choice.

The lyrics? 'You' rhymes with 'you' ("C'Est Bien Parce que C'Est Toi"), clever thinking. In fact, the whole text is played out in the power of the double-meaning title: "C'est bien parce que c'est toi" = As it's you, and you only; but also "C'est bien parce que c'est toi" = It's good because it's you, literally. A fairly representative example, because the lyrics of the whole album were approached like this, a clever dosage of simple words and ready-made expressions that suddenly make sense.

Shall we continue? After 6 songs of very good quality, the next 3 see Matthieu return to his tics, the same ones that had distanced me a little from his last 2 albums in French: speaking rather than singing, dropping words in a hurry that don't concern me, on a music that is hardly remembered. Fortunately, these songs are much better received in concert, bringing diversity in the instruments, with inversions of the musicians.
Finally, although it is a cover, "Elle ne Lira Jamais mes Poèmes" sounds more Malon than Malon, since it strangely reminds me of "La Dernière Fois", an old song by Matthieu.

Wobbly, but he always lands on his feet.
By releasing 4 good records in 9 months (!), the Orleans native has set the record straight and demonstrated that he was still a very big player in the contemporary independent scene, capable of playing on 2 levels: laudanum has returned to his initial electro project made of samples and featurings, while Matthieu Malon under his own name has also got back on the rock and pop tracks in French.
They are 2 sides of the same coin, and the balance of this music enthusiast undoubtedly lies in the complementarity of his 2 sides.
Otherwise, he is wobbly. But still worthy. And that's fine.