‘Tyger, Tyger, burning bright/In the forests of the night.’ William Blake’s famous poem The Tyger is cited in the first track of Emily Loizeau’s third album, Mothers & Tygers. A very delicate, folky affair with English and French songs. She has a French mamam and an English dad, on her earlier albums she sang both in French and English. At first, she wanted to make an English album. But later on she decided not to go against her bilingual upbringing. Family, the relationship between mothers and daughters and the poetry of William Blake (read to her as a little girl by her grandmother) are recurring themes on this album. Em’s a mom herself, which made her think back of her own childhood and the tiger-like wildness she felt back then. At least, that’s what she says in this interview.
Emily sings two duets, one with Camille, and another (Blake’s The Angel set to music) with Herman Düne’s singer David-Ivar Herman Düne – both work very, very well. Because of Loizeau’s roots, you never cringe when she sings in English, her beautiful, slightly hoarse vocals are set to banjo’s, strings, acoustic guitars and percussion. Lesser leftfield sounds then on her sophpmore album, more restrained. Not the all-out party folk of, say, Mumford and Sons. But more like in earlier single Vol le chagrin des oiseaux.
Emily Loizeau – Tyger
Keren Meloul, who looks like an Oriental half-sister of Carla Bruni, took her stage name from the 1979 movie The Rose, based on the tragic life of Janis Joplin. Unlike Janis, or Bette Midler who plays The Rose, Keren has a soft, hoarse voice that channels early spring, meadows with glistening dewdrops. But there’s a melancholy undertone, like you see the autumn leaves already between the blossomming trees. She made two albums, a third one’s about to be released and Et Puis Juin is the first single. Spring colours and autumn leaves all rolled in to one. See a live clip here.
