Unpopular? Of all the hiking trails that song offers, Bénabar’s are among the most frequented. This new album has every reason to delight! Bénabar continues the evolution begun with Reprise des négociations; takes it further; goes where it wants to go. Dares. Surprises. Bénabar does not do Bénabar. He could have turned one of his own styles into a formula. Not him. No desire. He wrote his songs off on his own, as usual, then changed his habits. Starting with the production choices. Until now, he approached his songs at the piano. “I had my bearings, my chord cycles.” This time, it was on a guitar that the little newcomers were born. Then François Delabrière joined arrangers Jean-François Berger and Fabrice Ravel Chapuis, already studio partners during the last session. He mixed Bénabar’s previous album, and produced those of Kyo and Daniel Darc, among others. He’s an English-style producer. He has sounds in his head - he hears the strings in London. So it goes pop, this light, swinging pop of the 60s, here asserting the classy brilliance of its brass, a bold elegance in the style of Nino Ferrer, a melancholic joy of Italian canzonetta. It is variety music, a term Bénabar has always claimed even though he long aroused the music world’s disapproval. New chronicles of the contemporary human being - his beauties, his foolishness, his loneliness. New Bénabar songs - where you see the bear dancing on a volcano. And the singer putting himself at risk, questioning himself. That’s not so common.