Angèle was due out this Friday Ninety-five, his second album, three years after the dazzling success of Brol. But, confined to her home because of Covid-19, on her birthday, the young Belgian decided to self-leaker at the same time as she was blowing out her 26 candles on December 3.
A way for her to relieve the pressure that surrounds, for many artists, the conception and presentation to the public of this second effort? Asked by 20 minutes a few weeks earlier, the interpreter of Brussels I love you explained that he had indeed “always said that the second album was difficult, especially with a first which was successful”.
“I think I stayed a little in denial during a whole period of composing, without asking myself too many questions, saying to myself: ‘Bah, I make music!’ Without really knowing where it would lead me. When I decided that there would be a second album, that’s where it all materialized, “said the singer, stressing that she initially wanted” not to release anything for five years “in order to put this deadline on. the continuation “very very far” and “to remake music for the pleasure”.
Like Angèle, many singers have recently found themselves having to defend their second album, in the midst of a health crisis, with little promotion and almost no way to present their new songs on stage: Dua Lipa (Future Nostalgia), Eddy de Pretto (To all the bastards), The Empress (Tako Tsubo), Clara Luciani (Heart), Jérémy Frérot (Better life), Billie Eilish (Happier Than Ever), Juliette Armanet (Burn the fire)… Beyond the Covid-19, everyone has especially confided in this difficult course, which could almost be seen as a curse weighing on artists who have had great success from the start of their careers.
Reassure or experiment?
The first album is “a particular moment, it is the realization of a desire, of a dream, the singer lays the foundations of his musical orientation”, explains Sophian Fanen, journalist specializing in music, to 20 minutes. “Often the first album has a real logic, a maturity, we reveal ourselves. With the second, when we had a certain popularity, what do we say? We can no longer talk about the struggles of the beginning, for example. And musically, what direction are we heading? », Continues the author of Boulevard du stream (published by Le Castor Astral).
A press officer of a major record company, who wished to remain anonymous, underlines that it is necessary, in addition, to compose “much more quickly, sometimes even in full tour”, while the first opus is the culmination of ” three, four years of work ”. “The hardest part is being creative in a short period of time,” she admits.
These artists find themselves in a dilemma. Should we make the same songs, with the risk of tiring the audience? Or, on the contrary, to go in a totally different direction, even if it means surprising his fans? French singer Silly Boy Blue, who released her debut album Breakup Songs last June, told 20 minutes that it was “the two ways” in which one should not fall, according to her. “I’m preparing my second album and I don’t want to offer the same thing, nor to stray too far from what I was doing. We have to gauge, find the right balance. But there is no miracle recipe, it would be too easy, ”she laughs.
Briton Dua Lipa also asked herself the question, as she told the New York Times. She chose to change her style almost entirely, rubbing in the disco on Future Nostalgia, so as not to find yourself stuck in a studio, trying to remake another song like New Rules », One of his greatest successes. “It’s a vicious cycle that I wouldn’t have grown up in and no one would have benefited from because it would have been the same song over and over again.”
This second disc, however very different from the first which was much more pop, was acclaimed by the critics and acclaimed by the public. The few songs, dancing at will, released between the two, One kiss with Calvin Harris and Electricity with Silk City, were however able to play as a bridge between the two universes of the artist of Albanian origin.
The freedom of streaming
Today, streaming has all the same taken some pressure off the shoulders of young artists. “If their second album does not work, nothing prevents them from offering another six months later,” says Sophian Fanen. The journalist of the online media Les Jours continues: “In the days of the physical disc, releasing one was a complicated and expensive operation. We couldn’t make two records every year, unlike now. “
“Thanks to streaming, we have the possibility of offering lots of songs, sometimes very different from each other. The more you do things, the less each outing is an event and the less stress is present, ”recognizes Ana Benabdelkarim, alias Silly Boy Blue.
If for artists the album “remains a concept, an important object”, this is especially true for those “with a large community, which is waiting to have the record in hand”, analyzes Manon L’Huillier, press officer at Phunk . “It’s not the same state of mind, the same culture in rap or electro, for example,” she adds. Some artists even offer only singles or EPs (a disc of four to six songs). They surely do not feel the pressure inherent in the second album. Like the French Oscar Anton, who released in 2020 compilations of songs according to the months of the year entitled August Pack, October Pack Where December Pack.
A big lottery
“This pressure around the second album exists especially for the singers who have marketed enormously from their first”, finally recalls Manon L’Huillier. Some, like Apple, are more successful with their second effort. The young Frenchwoman, who already had a loyal following, turned everything upside down with Loopholes, much more personal and close to his universe. For its precedent, Nearly, she had not been able to make “an album to [son] image ”, having been assailed by the opinions of many interlocutors, she explained to RFI.
Jérémy Frerot, in an interview with 20 minutes, also confided that his first album “did not correspond” to the style of music that he liked. “When I left Fréro Delavega (the duo that made him known to the public, editor’s note), I told myself that I had to become someone, a full-fledged artist, that I make myself respected on my own , that I tell people that I don’t need to be in a group. I needed some sort of validation, ”he explained, then freeing himself with Better life, much more solar and dancing.
A second album that flops is also not necessarily inevitable. It allows the artist, if he is supported by his record company, to question himself, to work harder and to go up the slope. This is what happened to Lana Del Rey. Adored at the release of her first record Born to die in 2012, she saw a large part of her audience let go of her two years later, in 2014, at the time ofUltraviolence. This collection of rock songs, produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, may have confused fans of his ingenious blend of pop and hip-hop. The New Yorker found herself obliged to offer several opus very quickly in stride, Honeymoon, in 2015, then Lust For Life, in 2017, before finally returning to critical and public success with Norman Fucking Rockwell in 2019.
“Music is a bit like a lottery, sometimes it works with the first album, sometimes with the second or third,” smiles Sophian Fanen. For Silly Boy Blue, the important thing is in any case to be signed with a record company that believes in its artists and to surround yourself with a good team. “It takes some of the pressure off and above all it allows you to see an opus only as an artistic suite. There are no longer any results or financial issues. For them, I want to make the best album there is, ”concludes the Nantaise who began to think about what to do next… as soon as the recording of her first project was finished.