Chronic

The rantings of Philippe Katerine

Philippe Katerine. © Erwan Fichou & Theo Mercier

11/19/2019

For his eleventh studio album, Confessions , Philippe Katerine diverts the codes of hip hop and offers a host of guests, from Lomepal to Gerard Depardieu, from Camille to Léa Seydoux. If the guy surprises us again and again, we prefer him in a softer register.

In recent times, it has been seen more often in the cinema than in concert halls. Even more since the Caesar he got for The Big Bath (film directed by Gilles Lellouche), Philippe Katerine has become a popular figure. Singer, actor, draftsman, he appears in the eyes of the general public as a crazy character, that you never know how much to take. To those who would see his approach of irony, he replies on the contrary that it was never his thing.

For his Confessions , the guy takes the codes of hip hop and he signs this time, eighteen pieces planing, with many interludes pretty funny. He invites a good selection of personalities to his table: Lomepal, Dominique A, Oxmo Puccino, Léa Seydoux, Gérard Depardieu ... Trenching with his previous record, which he interpreted in piano-voice, this new Katerine may to be the taste of the current rap, but it is not quite.

Planing Beats and Drum Machines

Directed by Renaud Letang, who had already worked on his album Robots after all - that of the tube Luxor, I love - he resumed the thread of his diversions. Because dear Mr. Katerine takes childish pleasure to push the cork as far as possible. Which is reflected in particular by a very sexual humor. "Open the anus / It was like a refused card / Open the anus / It was like a forgotten password / Open the anus / It was like two shutters closed," says The Key , without that requires further explanation.

Sung with Camille, KesKesséKcetruck is a good example of absurd collage. As for Duo , shared with Gonzalez and Angèle, it's an effective pop song. But naive humor is seldom free for Katerine, who explains that she has fed this time from the flood of news channels to write. "We do not mistrust me after an attack / Grannies stick to me after an attack / Because I'm blond," says Blond , which is actually an anti-racist song. For a long time now, we prefer her moments of reverie ( Stone with you , Converse with you , Madame de ), her sweetness, her textual exhibitionism.

Those who do not like Katerine will not like it anymore, with these drum machines and beats in the clouds. Those who have followed him so far will continue to think he is a sacred creator. This baroque and varied disc, however, is not his great work - like a dubious cover, where he wears a penis instead of the nose - and we will prefer simpler albums, like 8th Heaven or The Film , released three years ago. The artist then upset us by recounting the mourning that followed the death of his father.

Katerine Confessions (Five 7 / Wagram) 2019
Official website / Facebook / Instagram

By: Bastien Brun

katerine

French Song - France - album

On the same subject

Katerine, to life, to humor

He would have had desires for murder and would have finally come to grips with a ...

Philippe Katerine between electro and disco

Philippe Katerine has joined the services of SebastiAn to realize ...

Katerine, Francis and his painters

In the company of the jazzman François Ripoche and his band (Francis and his ...

Katerine gives the sound to Versailles

The troublemaker Philippe Katerine occurred Tuesday, May 24 in the Orangery ...