After “Grand Prix” in 2020, Benjamin Biolay returns with a tenth album, “Saint-Clair“, named after a district of Sète (Hérault), the city where he lives.

A link with religion

Benjamin Biolay obviously wanted to give “Saint-Clair” the colors of rock and the stage. Homemade, the album was produced with the only musicians on board on the previous tour. A formation reduced to four boys: Biolay himself, Pierre Jaconelli on guitar and bass, Johan Dalgaard on keyboards and Philippe Entressangle on drums. In his texts, he notably addresses his links with religion. “It’s part of a decorum that I like, everything that has to do with religion, and regardless of religions,” he says. Benjamin Biolay, it’s 20 years of career, ten albums and a phrasing à la Serge Gainsbourg, a figure from which he would like to break away. “When I started, I was asked who was my favorite singer in France, and I said I have three: Trenet, Gainsbourg and Salvador. But we remember that Gainsbourg”, he laments , recalling having made an album in homage to the first, and written for Henri Salvador.

A duet with Clara Luciani

On this album, the piano and orchestral arrangements – which for a long time were Biolay’s trademark – gave way to more rhythmic melodies in the tradition of Grand Prix. It offers us a crossing with rock accents and guitar riffs inspired (and assumed) by the Strokes or even by Depeche Mode with the very sexy and sensual “Numéros Magiques” in which everyone can find in an echo, a sentence, a word that reminds us of our own existence. There is also a sublime duet with Clara Luciani, the star of the charts at the moment, called “Sainte-Clara”