BORIS MAURUSSANE - Tears Of English Town

Stacked firewood, perhaps abandoned: a partly misleading cover image announces the new album by Boris Maurussane, "Tears Of English Town", a record project that is anything but static or half-hearted — quite the opposite, it's learned and ambitious. The Parisian musician once again blends chamber-pop aesthetics with bossa nova, jazz, psychedelia and classical music. It's a rich trove of suggestions and inspirations in which virtuosity weds the graces of song form, giving rise to floating, shifting melodies that draw on their many references without ever getting bogged down in mere quotation.

Scrolling through the long list of contributors and instruments used, one immediately senses an elaborate approach to songwriting, where improvisation and attention to detail go hand in hand. "Tears Of English Town" is a project that needs repeated listens to be fully appreciated; it's almost too refined and detached from rock liturgy, closer to a baroque-pop suite that winds its way through classical-leaning prologues ("Ouverture"), flowing Canterbury-style sounds ("The Season's Ending"), lounge-pop delights ("Triangle") and vintage synth effusions ("Bubbles"), for an hour of musical digressions perfect as the potential soundtrack to a fantasy film.

The album is an intricate interlocking of classical-leaning quotations ("Siesta" and "Decipher") and pop temptations ranging from the Beatles ("Sur Pilotis") to the Beach Boys (imagine "Season Coda" performed with voices alone), with sophisticated instrumental scores ("Christians From The Lake") tempered by lively textures poised between jazz and tropicalismo (the title track).
This mix never slips into didactic formal virtuosity, thanks to a creative consistency that, while occasionally in need of a bit more dynamic drive, remains admirable both in its premises and in its results.

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06/10/2026