At its heart Songs of Resilience is very like its artist – eclectic, charming, and just a little bit erratic. The latest release from French-born and London-based Clémentine March follows quickly on from her last LP, Lost Continent, and once again brings to mind the image of a woman just trying to figure things out. This is mirrored by the sheer range of influences upon March’s work, ranging from notable French chanteuse Françoise Hardy, to Brazilian Samba, to Nirvana.
The themes explored in Songs of Resilience present a broad image of the world we live in – one with such potential for greatness, but one that’s all too often clouded by the bad. Songs such as ‘Panic Attack’ and ‘Inside The Wave’ express a great fear for the outside world’s current events, and yet offer us the comfort of human connection within the chaos of uncertainty.
A multi-instrumentalist, March has given us this acoustic album, which is unsurprising given her background in classical guitar and the creative bubble that was her existence during last November’s lockdown. The creation of Songs of Resilience revolved around staying sane during imposed isolation, via an outpouring of observational metaphors and short hypothetical musings. The album is a compositional experiment formed during this break from further work with her band, written in a moment when most of the world stood still.
It’s also a very self-reflective album, spanning multiple languages from English to French to Spanish. The formation of the album tells you exactly where March has been and where she would like to go. Each song provides a hopeful but wary vision of her surroundings, the events that have led her to this moment, and the fear of the future. This is an album for anyone looking for a perfectly charming reminder that sometimes it’s okay to be a pessimist.
Songs of Resilience is out 5th February via Lost Map
