This is an album I listened to on repeat when I was learning French. Carla Bruni became famous for her looks as a model as a striking blue-eyed beauty who was one of the most famous supermodels in France. She’s Italian & French but lived mostly in France and worked as a French model. She then showed she was more than just a pretty face when she released this incredible soft rock in 2003. She became even more famous marrying the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008.
Quelqu’un M’a Dit is full of acoustic guitar and her voice almost whispering in tune with one of the sexiest voices of all-time. She speaks clearly without power, but as she says several times in her lyrics, with caress. I listened to walking in the forest near my house and at night before bed learning French through her poetry and clear enunciating. Also the guitars on the album are sick, the drums rest perfectly helping you mosey through the album and the strings support the entirely light structures to sturdiness.
She wrote the majority of the songs, although she doesn’t play instruments too much, her lyrics are very personal and talk about love and romance. The combination of the gentle guitar, her sexy voice, and the poetry made for a surprisingly powerful debut. I love the distortion slide guitar solo on Le Ciel dans une Chambre which fits perfectly in on a majority acoustic guitar album.
Because of her background as an Italian, she also does a popular Italian song, Il Cielo in una Stanza, and translates the lyrics to French, but still repeating lyrics in it’s original Italian form.
I could go through every song and detail why the lyrics are incredible. But here’s one: Le Toi du Moi is a standout as she just compares things in sets of 2 over and over showing the relationship of her and her lover, one even being “you’re the Beauty and I’m the Beast… I’m the sage and you’re the fool…” It’s very honest saying with the comparisons of words, including intimate sections like, “you’re the whore, and I’m the pass…” where she whispers it. Putain the word she uses for “whore” can also mean “bitch, or fucker”, but she’s being very coy. She ends with “you’re my love, you’re my love.”
I’ll leave you with just the translation of the titles of the songs.
Quelqu’un M’a Dit - Someone Told Me (her biggest hit about gossip and hearing someone still loves her)
Raphaël - Raphael (about an old lover)
Tout le Monde - The Whole World
Le Noyée - The Drowned Girl
Le Toi du Moi - The You from Me
Le Ciel dans une Chambre - The Sky in a Bedroom (talks about beautiful nature scene she experiences from her bed with her friend, this is the Italian cover)
J’en Connais - I’m Familiar with It
Le Plus Beau du Quartiet - The Most Beautiful in the Neighborhood
Chanson Triste - Sad Song
L’excessive - The Excessive
L’amour - Love
Le Dernière Minute - The Last Minute
Carla Bruni tried to break into the English market with covers and adaptations of famous poets, but those albums are not nearly as good and feel forced. Here she actually reveals what love means to her whereas the other albums felt more like commercial endeavors.