Eric Cantona – I’ll Make My Own Heaven Review

Cultural everyman Eric Cantona has his hands on just about everything. Football, acting, art, wine and fine dining. Now it is the turn of music – and he is as surprisingly average at it as most hoping to rely on a bed of strings and suffering through their lyrics. It works for the ex-Manchester United star though, who has set his sights on a record and slowly works through a trickle of releases. I’ll Make My Own Heaven settles in nicely from the title alone, an objectively solid beginning for a man who feels there would be truth in those words. An arrogance of spectacle yet a commitment to some higher deity. A fine line blurred by one of the few people who could claim to do so in a literal sense.  

Cantona does not come close in doing so if he was broadcasting this love and warmth through his music alone. He may feel there is a heaven to be made but there is a shortchanged experience here. This four-track EP is as much a surprise as it is a bit of a letdown. Opener The Friends We Lost is still as middle of the road as it was on release all those months ago. Coupling two of his singles so far and packaging them in under a third is a fair idea – but it leaves behind a fourth. Cantona casts aside Je veux as the forgotten piece of his vaguely interesting puzzle. Light rock with a Sky Movies trailer feel to I’ll Make My Own Heaven really prevents it from pushing on as a better track than the stifled opener

Considering these are his first few outings, it is fair to hear Cantona has not quite found a sound which works for his voice. I’ll Make My Own Heaven drowns him out with Oasis-oriented guitars. Simply structured and loud as Cantona sings vaguely of being selfish and rubbish. A solid voice drowned out by sound. Such a shame. There is probably something within this worth the trouble though it is impossible to decipher what it is as flickers of lyrical consistency strum through, with angelic principles mired by the muddying waters of the real world – Cantona finds his footing quite well with this theme, just loses the heart of it to slick and simple instrumentals. Such is life, he ends. It would make more sense if any of it was decipherable.  

Enticingly simple at times though the mixing could use some work, I’ll Make My Own Heaven is far from the pearly gates. It feels more like purgatory, suffering on as Cantona, who has a clear ear for talented song-making, fails to get his work over the finish line. Instead, his poorly mixed EP brings a series of shots in the dark. These are not the glorious and tender moments he was hoping for, though flickers of his initial idea can be heard on latter tracks Tu me diras and Je veux. Bells and chimes soon come through and peak the interest – though this is not from the Cantona EP. Spotify has simply moved the music onto Ian Brown. What a dud. Cantona, not Brown. Although there is something about disappointing Mancunians and popular music. Quite the trend.