Musical Remedial Guide | The albums we missed

These albums flew under our radar when they were released. But as we listened, they took an indelible place between our ears. Our reviews bring to light six discs that they had unfairly ignored among the flood of new releases… and a last one that we have difficulty getting rid of.

Gemini Rightsby Steve Lacy

The second disc of the prodigy Steve Lacy fell on me long after its publication. A friend showed me the great music video for the play sunshine, with the singer Fousheé, and I immediately wanted to know more. R&B, funk and indie rock come together here with a psychedelic, experimental and fundamentally modern side. Lacy embodies the future of R&B. His record obeys no rules, it is full of originality, while maintaining a pleasant accessibility. The singer-songwriter assumes everything he does, we feel he is in control of his creation, with a clear direction, even if the work itself exudes letting go, lightness. To discover absolutely.

Marissa Groguhe, The Press

Build a table to put our fist togetherof Bolduc all crooked

Released at the end of March, this fourth album by Bolduc tout croche is the kind of work that insinuates itself into hearts and ears as soon as we take the time to listen to it – which we ended up doing with a few months of delay ! With its alternative country – think more Alex Burger than Paul Daraîche – and literary, contemporary but immersed in its roots, the trio led by Simon Bolduc has a deeply original signature. The album produced by Navet Confit, Éric Goulet and Émilie Proulx is as stripped down as it is hovering and leaves plenty of room for the vernacular poetry of the lyrics. “I’ll teach you the basics of Bakunin/I’m waiting for you to introduce me to your Micheline/We’ll get lost in the museum/We’ll listen to country music. Frankly, it would have been a shame to miss it.

Josee Lapointe, The Press

Broncosby Orville Peck

You can’t have ears all around your head… I was introduced to Orville Peck in August, months after the release of his album Broncos and only a few days after his stay at Corona. Behind his fringed mask, the Canadian cowboy deploys a song capable of Johnny Cash-like bass, but also of an astonishing lyricism apparently inspired by his love of musicals. Imagine the panache of Rufus Wainwright, but in atmospheres where the enigmatic cinema of David Lynch (a luminous side in addition) meets the nocturnal country-folk of the 1950s, and you will have an idea of ​​the universe that Orville Peck develops. Broncos has been celebrated almost everywhere, which makes it all the more embarrassing to have missed out on his sensitive and polished songs for so long.

Alexandre Vigneault, The Press

Plywood Joe and the baloni eaters (vol. 1), by Plywood Joe

“The weather is always nice sitting on my skidoo / from noon to midnight, to get away from my ordeal,” roars Plywood Joe, the country alter ego of Acadian singer-songwriter Joey Robin Haché. The same could be said of his choruses, in the heart of which the weather is always sunny, even when everything is going badly. An anthology of comic-loving portraits of men who earn their living by getting their hands dirty, this first volume recorded with a group called Les mangeux de baloni is less parodic than its cover suggests, despite the singular earthiness of the stories told. in Ski Doo (the song about snowmobiles that John Mellencamp never deigned to write), Royal Flush (the song about the financial problems of a guy who builds houses that Weezer never bothered to write) and jackhammer (the song about the dangers of caffeine abuse that Stephen Faulkner never bothered to write). Celebrating the rugged beauty of a series of warm working men, the guy from Nigadoo in northern New Brunswick actually talks about the sacrifices we’re all willing to make in order to taste, come evening or weekend , a few hours of bliss.

Dominic Tardif, The Press

Personal Bestby TRAAMS

The London trio TRAAMS made a name for themselves about ten years ago by offering albums and EPs modeled on the music of Sonic Youth, Pavement, Television and even Kraftwerk. Then after Modern Dancing, released in 2015… nothing left. A long saving break for Adam Stock, Stuart Hopkins and Leigh Padley, who took over the instruments in 2022 and offer us this Personal Best that we no longer expected. We discover songs that mix progressive rock, post punk and slowcore. The construction of the wall of sound is masterful, the bass lines are strong and fat, the crescendos are numerous, the guitars are distorted. Personal Best brilliantly signs the rebirth of a trio that we now hope will be part of our soundscape for years to come.

Philippe Beauchemin, The Press

Where Myth Becomes Memoryby Rolo Tomassi

Indefinable, Rolo Tomassi is the expression of creative freedom. The British quintet does not, however, give in to eclecticism at all costs, it simply makes its own shoegaze, metal, progressive and mathcore influences to weave a fascinating musical universe. The distracted listener will of course be startled when hearing the different vocal registers of the singer Eva Korman, who moves freely from soft aerial melodies to wild and guttural cries; but a careful listening to the album, released in February, shows to what extent the group has mastered the art of creating atmospheres that are at once heavy, intense, hovering and intoxicating. For the sake of integrity, the group has surprisingly remained a part-time project, even though it has been active for almost 15 years. “I never considered making a living from the music I compose,” keyboardist James Spence candidly revealed to Guardian. If that was the goal, we would be a band that would sound very different. »

Pierre-Marc Durivage, The Press

The hard-to-forget album: WEfrom Arcade Fire

WE, from Arcade Fire, is the album that many music lovers wanted to forget but which resurfaces when the time comes to take stock of the most vibrant music of the year. I was still under buzz show at the Osheaga festival when the webzine Pitchfork published the testimonies of people denouncing the way Win Butler behaved sexually with them. Like many people who have followed Arcade Fire since its inception, I boycotted the group all fall, but since missing its show at the Bell Center I’m torn: can Arcade Fire really disappear from my nightclub? and even disappear… period?

Emilie Cote, The Press