Feverishness? Yes. Anticipated joy? Not halfway. Suspense? Not really. A first performance by Daniel Bélanger, even in the same room where he triumphed the last time (in March 2017, for the tour of the album Paloma) is nothing to worry about. It can’t be less. It has never been less, Bélanger. Unlikely? Impossible.
He still has to show up, the beloved Daniel. A first part not too planned delays the joy. Who ? This guy who calls himself Lumière, whose album glam was favorably noticed last month. Guitar-voice, he plays it star in the making, refers to Leloup and Charlebois. We will remember for the moment that it does not take itself for half a grapefruit. Apparently he won’t be there for Belanger’s four evenings. We fell badly, that’s all. Let’s conclude in the dismissal.
Daniel at home
Home of a great champion, you can imagine. Not embarrassed, he starts with a song that hasn’t really suffered from the plasters, one of the ambitious ones of Mercury in May,sun ahead, which mixes groove, soul, psych-pop spirit and electro. On the album, Daniel played almost every instrument. There, it’s a five-man attack, a shock commando. The groove wins. It is equally true for sing again. A sound, an attitude.
“You came back! » Complicit statement. The whole MTelus is pawing. “I warn you, there will be a lot of notes. And it will be all in French. That is just about everything. And it resumes with the very hovering You have to agree. A marvel of slightly sgtpepperian modulations. With this brilliant line in its double meaning: “You have to agree in gender and number”.
The booming drum’n’bass intro does not announce get me out of me, but the giant chorus extricates itself from any arrangement to exist separately, celebrated by people, who pull their vocal cords out of their bodies. Everything lends itself to this compact and rock sound, as much there is so much to do thatImperfect. Everything is sung in unison with joy. “You haven’t lost your nightingale voice!” These melodies, these rises in the chorus, what vertigo. “The world is imperfect,” he sings perfectly. It is not to a contradiction, our hero. Beauty wins, whatever he sings.
Each song, a communion
To leave you : a joy (especially the vocals at the end). Untouchable and immortal : a happiness (the picking electric in a loop, in particular, in rhythm with the images of the black and white city wandering around). In a Sputnik: happiness (with Lindberg-style intro, extraterrestrial and palpable at the same time, you have to do it). Simple as well. Complex as well. Daniel Bélanger, down-to-earth magician, laughing gas fuel genius.
And it continues at the same incredible level of excellence. Whether they are consecrated hymns (times are crazy, crazy anywhere), songs still fresh from Mercury in May (Sleep in the car, In the wind of ideas), unexpected revisits (Breathe in the water, The two springs), we bathe in a kind of unimaginable well-being, we feast on this exceptionally beautiful voice that he has and deploys — always! — at appropriate times. When we arrive at the encores, we are already sated. Think it adds I hear everything playing (in your head), dream betterx, and even madness in four. Dumbfounded with bliss, we are. Quietly ecstatic. Ready to face life, outside. On the sidewalks, we will sing.