Across eleven songs, the crooner-actor-musician tells his story, in filigree, with tenderness and nostalgia. Jacques Pessis presents us with Guy Marchand’s new album. “A crooner is someone who can come on stage saying I am alone, sad and old, but I am cool.” Guy Marchand’s art of living corresponds to one of the titles on this self-portrait album, which resembles him. He has never stopped talking about love, as he says in “J’aime,” “Hôtel du Nord” and “Eternel amant.” “Chanteur de charme” lets him add that, at a little over four times 20 years old, a woman’s smile still disarms him, again and again. “La Passionnata” was already very present in his heart when, as a child, he carved hearts with a penknife in Belleville, where he already preferred musical notes to those of teachers whose classes he regularly skipped. On the other hand, he was very present in the neighborhood’s dark theaters, where he discovered stars who made him dream, without imagining that one day he too would become an actor. On the other hand, he is not putting on an act when he speaks of his legacy. In “Chanteur de charme,” he says that nothing will remain of him, of what he calls his “elevator music.” Clear-eyed, he says that the wind carries away the scores. Except when, like his, they have many assets to remain in tune with the times. Long, long after the performer has disappeared... (Album produced by Ludovic Beier)