After a first superficial listen to this cd, I thought ‘Hmm, I’ve heard this before’. One day later I noticed myself humming and tapping along. These new songs by Geoffrey D.’s project are just too attractive to resist. Again Dernière Volonté has delivered a fine album full of catchy ‘military pop’.
The main ingredients have not changed that much: the hymn-like classical hymns with lots of organ sounds, the ambient soundscapes, the staccato rhythmic percussion, the melodic singing by Geoffrey D. Especially his vocals have improved, furthermore I get an overall feeling of higher professionalism. People who especially enjoyed Dernière Volonté’s early works, like “Obéir et Mourir”, will perhaps not be able to appreciate these poppy, melodic songs.
Dernière Volonté moves quite far in the direction of romantic chansons, especially through the ’soft’ singing, like on ‘Mes faiblesses’ and ‘La nuit revient’. A piece with clear 80’s references like ‘Douce irondelle’ is really cheerful and danceable. Then again there are still a few more gloomy ‘old school’ pieces left, like ‘Cran d’arrêt’, based on a text by Apollinaire. It’s hard to pick stand out tracks, but some of my favourites are ‘Au travers des lauriers’ (which reminds me of Anne Clark’s Our darkness for some reason), ‘Nos chairs’ and ‘Verbes fragiles’.
The main point of criticism may be that some of the songs are a bit too similar, but Dernière Volonté nevertheless proves to be still improving. Listening to “Devant le Miroir” is certainly a feast.
