Daniel Bélanger
Rêver mieux
Album · French Pop · 2001
The title of Daniel Bélanger's third studio album translates as “dream better”, and its songs sketch a love affair's sleep-depriving dissolution and the happier new beginning that follows. Acoustic guitar, wind instruments, heady soundscapes (by electronic producer Freeworm) and Bélanger's soft, intimate voice combine to induce gorgeous, fragile trance states. The wordless, downtempo groove of "Fugue en sol inconnu" and simple piano accompaniment of "Dis tout sans rien dire" add variety, but it's calmly ecstatic tracks like "Intouchable et immortel" that best express Bélanger's hopeful reveries.