Selective Listening | The Press

One hundred thousand tracks are uploaded to listening platforms every day. Our journalists draw your attention to the songs and albums that are getting them excited.

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AbracadabraKlo Pelgag

Don’t build an album from A to Z whoever wants. Klô Pelgag did it alone and the result, Abracadabrais the guarantee of his inventiveness, his vulnerability, but also his technical mastery. The instrumental moments – electronic and/or orchestral – take our breath away and make us soar, vibrate, shiver. Pelgag’s usual musical acolytes brilliantly transcribed the vision of the singer-songwriter-arranger-director. The voice is high and in tune, an instrument in its own right whose role is magnified here. In her writing, which is still as poetic as it is clear, Klô Pelgag uses fewer words than ever, sometimes uses repetition, and lets short verses tell long feelings. A feat of prose that often exasperates and sometimes reassures.

Marissa Groguhé, The Press

Pop

Abracadabra

Klo Pelgag

Secret City Records

CutoutsThe Smile

Frankly, finding Thom Yorke’s high-pitched voice initially caused uneasiness. Still this nagging melancholy? More haunted universes? Less than a year later Wall Of Eyes ? The Smile does not deviate so much from the paths it has already explored on this third disc. It nevertheless offers exceptionally gripping pieces, notably Eyes & Mouththe most jazzy piece on the disc, where the fairly classic piano sits on top of lively rhythms, guitar and bass. Cutouts lives up to its title: it sounds like a collection of the best moments taken from the improvisation sessions of a top trio. We sometimes get bored of Radiohead’s epic rock flights. The fact remains that The Smile still brings a smile to the ears.

Alexandre Vigneault, The Press

EXPERIMENTAL ROCK

Cutouts

The Smile

Self Help Tapes / XL Recordings

Live with the Quebec Symphony OrchestraLisa LeBlanc

Lisa LeBlanc is an extraordinary performer, but also a brilliant songwriter with a solid repertoire, and this album recorded in public with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra is there to prove it. What a great idea to have immortalized this wonderful spectacle full of winks, emotion and madness. Who other than Lisa LeBlanc could have created an event where banjo, disco and violins come together so happily? It was already one thing to experience it in person, but the quality of the arrangements, the enthusiastic interpretation of the orchestra and the boundless energy of the Acadian singer have the same joyful effect when listening to this album of 17 songs. A generosity that resembles it, enveloping and perfect for combating the autumn blues.

Josée Lapointe, The Press

Symphonic pop

Live with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra

Lisa LeBlanc

Bonsound

It’s Always Sunny In Glendale, Zach Zoya

Those who are already bored of summer will enjoy listening to seven new pieces by Quebec rapper Zach Zoya. A year after his move to Los Angeles, he released a microalbum that was as eclectic as it was sunny. The rap and R&B roots remain audible, but the sounds unfold here in pop, reggae, ska and house registers. The artist from Rouyn-Noranda delivers his stories of Californian life with sincerity and emotion, but also with humor. He plays the card of both the seducer and the disillusioned observer. Zach Zoya will present his new songs and hits to the Montreal public on 1^er November, at Ausgang Plaza. He will be in Toronto the next day.

Pascal LeBlanc, The Press

Rap

It’s Always Sunny In Glendale

Zach Zoya

Discs 7^th Sky

Girl dollSpit

“I need a man to protect me, to lift heavy things and make me food,” proclaim the furious “lowly naughty women” (as in Lower Town of Quebec) of Crachat. But we will quickly understand: they don’t actually need anyone, especially not a dude. With their subversive irony and simple riffs worthy of the greatest group in the history of the capital (Les Secretaires Volantes, not les Respectables), these three rebels send a brave glaviot of garage rock into the face of this world of abuse and compromise. Their first album is called Girl doll although, unlike that of wax and sound that France Gall embodied, they really don’t see life in candy pink.

Dominic Tardif, The Press

Punk rock

Girl doll

Sputum

Independent