For his third album, Belgian indie songwriter, Nicolas Michaux serves up an enticing blend of indie pop and French Chanson – with a tasty side-dish of funk.

Release Date:  18^th October 2024

Label: Capitane Records

Formats: CD / Vinyl / Digital

investigating polarities

Recorded in Denmark and in Brussels, featuring songs in both French and English and taking musical references from regions as diverse and Ghana and New Orleans,  Vitalisme – the third album from Belgian indie songwriter, Nicolas Michaux, is something of a pan-global offering.  Following the pattern set by his previous album, Amour Colère (2020), Nicolas uses Vitalisme, his latest album, to continue his investigation of polarities – between dawn and dusk, birth and destruction, hope and cold lucidity and past and future – but extends those explorations to consider also the issues we face together today – issues that include love, illness, war, climate change and inter-class conflicts.

Given that Nicolas holds such lofty and immense ambitions for the album, you’ll be forgiven for being surprised – as, indeed, I was – when you discover how eminently listenable an album Vitalisme truly is.  The songs are an engaging mix of indie pop and French Chanson – an almost 50/50 mix, in case you’re wondering – with copious measures of funk and Afro-rhythms thrown in for good measure. 

Nicolas plays the lion’s share of the instruments on the album but, like Mike Oldfield discovered long before Nicolas did, it’s nice to bring in a few accomplished mates to add the final polish and, on Vitalisme, Nicolas is ably assisted by bassist Ted Clark, guitarist Clement Nourry and drummers Yannick Dupont, Morgan Vigilante and Léo Léonard, as well as long-time collaborator, virtuoso Congolese multi-instrumentalist, Rodriguez Vangama.

expect the unexpected

I don’t know quite what I was expecting from Vitalisme but it wasn’t the smooth, funky, highly polished pop that emerged with the opening bars of Chaleur Humaine (it means “Human Warmth”), the album’s delightful opening track.  The sound is rich, the guitars are restrained and the rhythm is tight as Nicolas delivers the warm, reassuring vocals that are such a feature of Vitalisme.  And that warmth continues with Peace of Mind #2, a song in which spoken-word French verses alternate with an English language chorus.  Nicolas’s lyrics recall his childhood experiences – as a hospital patient and as a Paris street-smart – as well as his more recent past on the Danish island of Samsø.  A solid, fluid bassline provides the drive and, once again, the guitars are admirably restrained and thoroughly effective.

The compulsive bassline of Watching The Cars immediately brings Ian Dury and the Blockheads to mind and, it seems, that’s deliberate.  Nicolas delivers song’s disturbing lyrics, which reference the October 2023 attacks in Israel and the ongoing slaughter of the innocents in Gaza, in crazed tone, whilst the band keep their heads to provide an accompaniment that is eminently danceable.  Then, as if Nicolas was sensing that things are getting a little heavy, the intensity is dialed back a few notches for Alma, a song dedicated to Nicolas’s cat, of the same name.  The song celebrates the “power of love to help us through life’s difficulties” and it’s a bright, soulful affair with great interaction between the always-solid bass and the tinkly, funky guitars.

covers

Most of the compositions on Vitalisme are Nicolas’s own work, but the album does include a couple of covers – and the first of these, a version of Tucker Zimmerman’s She’s An Easy Rider, is one the album’s highlights.  Zimmerman, as some readers may be aware, has lived in Belgium since the 1960s, and Nicolas was introduced to his music by friend.  Nicolas interprets the song as a smooth, comfortable, ballad and his vocal delivery is outstanding.  The instrumental backing is exquisite – I particular like the organ, that adds a special sweetness – and are those strings I can hear…?

The album’s second cover, Le Léthé, is Nicolas’s interpretation of a Léo Ferré song, based upon a Charles Baudelaire poem and, featuring just Nicolas, alone with his Wurlitzer piano, it’s probably the album’s most intense song.  The song was included on an album he unearthed in a Paris record shop around ten years ago and he’s wanted to record it ever since.

The atmospheric ballad, Réparations, chronicles the life of a couple whose relationship is in a state of slow deterioration.  The song is the very epitome of Franch Chanson – rich, lush and, despite the lyrical subject matter, warmly invigourating.

creator and producer

At this stage, it’s worth mentioning that, as well as being a creator of his own music, Nicolas is also a producer of significant repute – his clients have included the likes of Turner Cody, Ben Chace and Lisa-Li Lund – and that’s a role that has enabled to pick up a few tricks.  Just recently, he had the privilege of producing a gospel album for none other than Irma Thomas and he’s applied some of the influences that he picked up then to A Long Time, another of the album’s truly outstanding tracks.  It’s a wonderful chunk of punchy rhythm and blues, with a New Orleans Dr John vibe clearly detectable.  The rhythm section is on top form, the mix of guitar and electric piano is sumptuous and Nicolas manages to shed all vestiges of his Belgian accent to become, for this song only, an honorary New Orleanian.

Rebirth and nightclubs provide the subject matter for light-as-air Voir Le Jour, a song originally inspired by Western Swing that manages to nod in the direction of reggae.  The lyrics: “Pour que l’on soit ensemble, ensemble tout la vie” (So we can be together, together for all of our lives) are as upbeat as the music and Nicolas gives the impression that, with this one, he’s REALLY enjoying himself.

dreamy and strange

In complete contrast, things start to get dreamy and not a little strange for A Tiger Has Escaped From The Zoo, the only song on the album that makes any meaningful reach towards psychedelia.  Indeed, it’s fairly easy to imagine Jim Morrison composing and singing lyrics like: “And everybody’s talking about the guillotine right there in the square that’s now ready for action, ready to chop off heads…”

Nicolas indulges his love of Ghanaian music on Vitalisme, the album’s vibrant title track; he and Morgan – on bass and drums respectively – provide the most solid of foundations whilst dueling guitars stretch out and reach for the African skies.  And that leads us home – to Au Revoir, Ma Chérie, the album’s beautiful, wistful closing track.  The lyrics offer hope – even for the turbulent times we currently endure – and the production is as crystal clear as it’s been for the whole album.  It’s a song that leaves the listener feeling hopeful and mellow, and wanting more.

Watch the official video to She’s an Easy Rider – a track from the album – here:

Nicolas Michaux online: Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / Bandcamp / Spotify

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