Johnny Hallyday: Pardonne-moi (and a few thoughts about Mon pays c'est l'amour...)

A new video for a song from Johnny Hallyday's final album, Pardonne-moi following the release of  J'en parlerai au diable as a single from Mon pays c'est l'amour.

Strangely there are some parallels with the video for David Hallyday's Ma dernière lettre video, directed by his sister Laura Smet. But I suppose the wolf is just too strong a visual metaphor to resist.

It's always a challenge to make a video from a star who's no longer with us. But Johnny's image was so firmly embedded in the French conscience that it doesn't take much to conjure him up. An eagle, a motorbike, a leather jacket and of course the wolf. I don't think the archive footage or the actor, supposed to be Laeticia Hallyday, are really needed.

But it's a decent late-period Hallyday performance, from an album that has made history in France as the biggest seller this year. Even in a year of particularly strong releases, despite it being a posthumous release, and one that has been at the centre of no small amount of controversy.

The posthumous album is always a difficult proposition. Few would rank the releases that came out under John Lennon's name after he died as anything like his best work - there's usually a pretty good reason tracks were not released after they were recorded. All too often the need for new product, whether demanded by fans or by record companies, results in sub-par compilations that don't do the artist's reputation any favours.

But Mon pays c'est l'amour is a different beast, more an unfinished album rather than one that was assembled from what was found on the shelf. Hallyday was working on the collection during his last months, so artistically it hangs together as well as any of his later albums. Johnny had a hand in creating it, and while it might have been finished without him, it was recorded and considered with the intention of being released as an album.

It doesn't stray from what Hallyday did best, powerful introspective  ballads and rock 'n' roll numbers like the title track, Back in LA or Made in rock 'n' roll, country and a strong blues flavour throughout. It was never going to be Blackstar or even Johnny Cash's American Recordings albums, but for better or worse it was always going to be as pure a distillation of latter-day Hallyday as possible.

Interlude probably didn't need to be there, though. It would have made an interesting orchestral b-side for a seven inch of J'en parlerai au diable but in the context of the album it feels like a bid to fill the running time of the album unnecessarily.

The songs are good and while there might not be an obvious Allumer le feu, the collection stands up well alongside albums like De l'amour, Rester Vivant or L'attante. Made in rock 'n' roll would certainly have been a great song in a live setting and had they had the opportunity, other songs would have no doubt taken their place in the Hallyday fans' hall of fame.

Even the harshest critic of Johnny would acknowlege his voice as one of the best, and despite the ravages of terminal illness his voice remains as powerful and distinctive on this album as it ever was.

The album has set records for sales in France. There's a new box set edition being released, and no doubt other singles will emerge. Elsewhere, tribute albums are planned from other aritsts, older material has been repackaged and released and the Hallyday industry has become a major commercial proposition.

There's talk of more unreleased material being released as albums, although his record company has been quick to play this down. I'm sure I heard, for example, around the time of l'attente there were sessions for English language versions of some of the songs. There's bound to be some material on archive shelves that deserves a listen and some of it will inevitably surface in the years to come.

But Mon pays c'est l'amour is maybe more a post-script to his discography than a regular posthumous release. It may not be his best work, but it stands up well alongside his recent studio albums.

Johnny may have left us, on a final motorcycle ride into the sunset, but his final despatch shows an artist who made the most of his talent right to the very end.