T ake Nick Cave, add a splash of Leonard Cohen, sprinkle with Serge Gainsbourg and you might have something approximating Eric Cantona’s first single. Yes, you read that right: The Friends We Lost is seriously good. The footballer turned actor turned chanteur whisper-croons his way through a gorgeous meditation on life with a handful of gnomic Cantona-isms thrown in for good measure (“Like a red snake in the water / In mind a winning number / Listen to the silence over the fear / The deep ocean that we can’t hear”). The single is just the start. Next up is a tour, a live album and a studio album.