His writing, with its raw elegance, and his rock-tinged tracks make Acquin a unique figure in French chanson. Behind this clinically-sounding pseudonym lies a refined author and composer who contemplates the human soul. With this second album, simply titled C’est beau, Acquin continues his collaboration with producer Frédéric Lo (Daniel Darc, Pete Doherty…). Bareback (2020), warmly received by the press, made their artistic dialogue evident. After the “subversive ellipses” described by Libération (Acquin, the Gainsbourg of the Marais), and the “intriguing and provocative” universe noted by Télérama (fff – Télérama), Acquin refines his exquisite aesthetic under the spotlight of new attention. C’est beau praises beauty, both textually and musically, and offers the pleasure of an almost entomological reflection on love, celebrated here in all its forms. C’est beau allows Acquin to dissect the savory complexity of things with the scalpel of his characteristic and intuitive pen, playfully engaging with phonetics. One thinks of Biolay, Brigitte Fontaine, or Feu! Chatterton, this French chanson that turns the raw and the gritty into poetry, the beautiful bizarre described by Baudelaire and echoed by Christophe in the eponymous album. Like a second movement of a concerto, or the other side of the same piece, Acquin presents through this record a luminous tableau, and once again does not fail to surprise.