JULY 21ST, 2023
A poet at his core, Etienne Lopa’s particular intuitive creative process regarding singing and songwriting places the weight of words on the same pedestal as the music and the melodies. In early 2022, he introduced himself with a mixed media poetry book. Since then, the multifaceted artist has also had Botanique in the works, a genre-defying record that reintroduced him as a singer-songwriter and lyrically furthers the themes already touched on in his poetry, along with dashes of French and Polish - his mother tongues - that occasionally underline his heritage, just enough to transport one to Poland’s flourishing musical scene or the romantic streets of Paris.
Etienne Lopa had slowly unveiled the sound of Botanique throughout the year with 4 promotional singles and accompanying visuals, which felt both familiar and completely contradictory to one another; his debut single Accalmie, a bright melodramatic 2000’s reminiscent pop ballad, being 180 degree different from the soulful sound of Love With A View, his last pre-release single. The promotional run was completed in the summer of 2023 with the release of the full long play.
The 12-track debut album has an undeniable jazz background, which can be heard in tracks like It Doesn’t Bother Me As Much Now and Before I Am A Singer, I Am A Poet, before moving onto tracks that are more reminiscent of R&B and classic soul. As the one ballad of the album, First Love - Freestyle builds a momentum on its own, with honest vocals and a stripped instrumentation à la Carole King. The listening experience is cut in half with eclectic electric guitars on Long Lost Poet, one of the many spoken word interludes present in the tracklist, strategically placed halfway through and thus announcing a less organic and more contrasted, electronica and rock focused facette of the album. Leaving Paris, the ambitious second promotional single, solidifies the alternative and punk influences, leaving the listener almost overstimulated by the experimental choices on the production. Following an interlude that fuses drum & bass and smooth jazz, Discothèque, also a single, marks a quick venture into classic disco and dance-pop, whereas Seven, the closing track, offers one last blast of dreamy electric guitars and poignant padded keys to seal this darker, more reflective side of the album.
The silver lining and the lead wire in Etienne Lopa’s Botanique is nostalgia and niche, present in the wide range of retro influences and adventurous production choices picked up from classic motown (Love With A View), the golden age of disco (heard in Discothèque), the late 90’s (Accalmie, Leaving Paris), not to mention the strong jazz sonorities that mark the entrance into the album, all supported by the singer’s raw and soulful vocal performance. The end result offers a coherent yet contradictory pot pourri, testifying on what it means for an artist to not limit themselves to a boxed genre and the pursuit of grandeur through versatility. It’s a commentary on the life of a modern boy and his dreams expressed through a retro lens and contrasted sonic influences, which all work together in the favor of making one solid debut - the finality upon listen being that the spectator is left with a sense of knowing the artist, yet quickly realizes they don’t at all and hastily await another project to be released, another volatile facette to be unveiled.