Inspiration for the evocative
Lullaby, written by Baerwald, Klein, MacLeod, Peyroux, and Warren, came from “the image of a solitary woman in the midst of a vast open sea singing to her child, or possibly herself, as she faces the chasm of the world.” With engaging empathy, the song paints a haunting picture of the displaced person’s desperation, as she is tormented by memories of “a time before the war”, in a boat paddling towards the unknown.
Anthem weaves the colorful stories of people confronting life’s challenges in a multitude of ways. With pathos and a hint of irony, it laments over financial tribulations in Down On Me, speaks of disappointment and unfulfilled dreams in the bluesy Ghosts of Tomorrow, and delivers a scathingly poignant social commentary in The Brand New Deal. Coming ten years after Bare Bones, the singer-songwriter’s previous album of original songs, Anthem finds Peyroux wiser with finer articulation powers. Inspired by her idol Leonard Cohen’s ability to “suffer for the work, but still present the listener with just a friendly thought”, Peyroux sends a spiritual but clear message of hope, optimism, and resilience in the face of a turbulent reality.
There are two covers in this album. Paul Eluard’s WW2 poem Liberté, and the title track, Leonard Cohen’s monumental Anthem, which also marks Peyroux’s third interpretation of the iconic poet’s work.
Soon becoming Peyroux’s “personal anthem”, Cohen’s soulful masterpiece “tied together all the stories on the record”, with uncanny relevance and topical worldly observation.
It was Cohen’s astonishing ability to tap into the human psyche and “make you think about things without forcing you into it”, that was the underlying thread throughout the project, leading to a more fluid style of writing, “that is about saying something rather than saying everything.”
Anthem’s lighter tunes include On My Own and On A Sunday Afternoon and 70’s sounding Party Tyme which “has some darkness to it.”
A key track on the album is Paul Eluard’s poem Liberté which came to Peyroux’s attention when a family friend requested she contributes a song to the documentary On the Tips of One’s Toes (Sur La Pointe des Pieds), telling the story of her gravely ill son and the family dealing with his fatal illness (Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy). A well-known poem in France and recently set to music by French rocker Marc Lavoine, “Liberté was already in the air following the Paris terror attack”. It came up for Peyroux and Klein as they were trying to put music to a sequence in the documentary showing the young boy going on daily outings and activities. It evoked questions about the parents’ ordeal of “living with the knowledge that their son will not live a full life”, and triggered thoughts of “life’s greatest questions about mortality, overcoming adversity and man’s place in the grand scheme of things”.
The 21-verse poem was edited down to fit the album’s format and its stanzas adapted before Peyroux and Klein wrote their original composition. Delivered in French and encompassing the entire human experience, Liberté begins with the lines “On my school notebooks, On my school desk and the trees”, to convey the essence of childhood and growing up. It goes on to touch on adulthood, romantic loneliness, and the many facets of human life, before finally speaking of illness, death, and recovery. “With every verse, Eluard mentions different places, imaginary and real where he would write ‘the name’ but the name itself remains a mystery until the all revealing last line “I was born to know you, To name you, Liberty”. Under Klein’s sensitive production, the arresting poem assumes an enchanting folksy simplicity, with only Klein’s acoustic guitar and Warren’s atmospheric synth strings to accompany Peyroux’s mesmerizing voice.
Anthem is Peyroux’s “biggest project to date”, with the artist investing many months of hands-on involvement in the studio, “exploring processed sounds and editing in post tracking. Special in that it was written with the group of musicians/writers who also played on it, “this album was about discovering the original songs as they were being recorded” and mastering the courage to “let the songs choose their own path.” The new album includes several songs bearing Peyroux’s distinctive, instantly recognizable style including On My Own and Sunday afternoon, but Anthem’s spirit was that of exploring new styles whilst resting safe in the knowledge that “if you are loyal to yourself, there should always be a thread running through your music.”