The 12th studio album by
Florent Pagny,
C'est Comme Ça is an impressive Spanish-language effort recorded in Miami that includes contributions from some of the Latin music world's finest songwriters and one of its premier producers. If it surprises you that
Pagny, one of the most successful French recording artists of the '90s and early 2000s, would take the time to make a full-length album's worth of Latin music, you don't know him very well. For one, he's married to an Argentine woman with whom he has children, and he's long been a resident of Patagonia, the expansive southern wilderness region of Argentina where he and his family reside on a large farm. Secondly, it's been years since he's released a straightforward French pop album. Prior to
C'est Comme Ça, he put out
Pagny Chante Brel (2007), a collection of
Jacques Brel covers;
Abracadabra (2006), an earnest album of chanson; and
Baryton (2004), a full-scale orchestral effort with opera excursions. His last straightforward French pop album was
Ailleurs Land (2003), which spawned his last chart-topping hit single, "Ma Liberté de Penser."
C'est Comme Ça consequently isn't all that out of character for
Pagny, who has made a virtue of eccentricity in recent years. While this might madden fans longing for a return to French pop from
Pagny, those fans willing to follow his whims will find that
C'est Comme Ça is rewarding, a well-crafted album of sophisticated Latin pop that's both lyrically and musically rich. In conceiving
C'est Comme Ça,
Pagny surrounded himself with first-rate talent, above all producer
Julio Reyes Copello, best known for his work with
Marc Antony. In addition to his pristine production work here,
Reyes composed five intermittently sequenced instrumentals a minute or so in length each that create a sublime ambience and give
C'est Comme Ça the feel of a concept album. The songwriting efforts were led by
Raúl Paz and Fernando Osario, who contributed a couple songs each, including the album's primary highlights, "C'est Comme Ça" and "Amar y Amar." Other songs are credited to
Diego Torres, who is featured as a duet partner on his song, "Te Puedo Acompañar";
Alejandra Guzmán, whose contribution is a duet with Cheona; and
Astor Piazzolla, whose tango classic "Vuelvo al Sur" closes the album. ~ Jason Birchmeier