Carla Bruni

Carla Bruni WRASSE/UNIVERSAL. CD/DL/LP Sixth album finds Bruni impressing in four languages. Such is Carla Bruni’s portfolio – model, humanitarian, “35th most powerful woman in the world” – she rarely gets credit for what she does best. Interest, yes, but not the kudos she deserves. The worst you can say about her latest is that Françoise Hardy could have recorded it in the late 1960s, which isn’t bad company to keep. It’s her first album of (predominantly) new songs since 2013, working with a team that includes writer Michel Amsellem, producer Albin de la Simone (Keren Ann; Vanessa Paradis) and her sister, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, on Voglio Amore, her first excursion into her Italian roots. Spanish classic Porque Te Vas gets a tender makeover, but the headline-grabber will be Your Lady, a debut in English that could almost be the most French-sounding song she has ever sung. Bruni’s transEuropean identity has rarely seemed more poignantly alluring. David Hutcheon