Pub Royal, Cowboys Fringants | “It’s an important album”

Thursday morning, upon waking up, the first thing Louis Bellavance did was listen to the new Cowboys Fringants album, Royal Pub. In full, this time (he had listened to parts of it before going to bed).

“We cannot listen to this album with the same filter as when we listen to the new album by an important artist, wondering if the arrangements are interesting and everything,” underlines Mr. Bellavance, director of programming for the Festival. summer festival in Quebec, where the Cowboys Fringants offered an anthology show last summer. “There is a scope, a meaning beyond that,” he says.

Released five months after the death of singer Karl Tremblay, Royal Pub is the posthumous album of Cowboys Fringants, but also an album that could be described as testamentary. It contains five songs from the musical Royal Pub and eight others created for the album.

Karl Tremblay had time to perform six before his death, including The end of the show, the flagship song of the musical. This seven-minute piece is probably “the strongest” on the album, according to Louis Bellavance. The theme of death is very present in this song, and throughout the album, in fact.

“It brings a really special impact, but musically it is also a typical Cowboys album, a return to the sources with its joyful, festive, luminous side,” underlines Louis Bellavance. He also salutes the courage of the members of the group, who express their vulnerability.

According to him, songs from the album would have made their way on stage, such as The end of the show, Thank you well! And Loulous vs Loulou, on which Karl Tremblay and Marie-Annick Lépine sing a duet.

“Time will tell the place that the album will take, but currently, it is extremely important, it is very beautiful and it is very strong,” summarizes Louis Bellavance.

Knowing how to leave

Professor of musicology and director of the music department at UQAM, Danick Trottier sees two “moments” in this posthumous album: the first ten songs are in his eyes a synthesis of the musical style of Cowboys Fringants, while the last three (The White hairs, Thank you well! And The good continuations) are the expression of mourning, of memory.

Danick Trottier was particularly moved by The good continuations, an instrumental piece written by Jean-François Pauzé. “It’s a melancholy waltz, in the form of a farewell, which I found very beautiful,” says the professor, who points out that, in Western music, the waltz is often associated with departure.

There is something, too, in the grain of Karl Tremblay’s voice, an emotion, observes the professor. The singer knew it would be his last recording – and so did the band members. “In the album, there is a sense of closure, a sense of closure at the end of a long trajectory,” summarizes Danick Trottier. I don’t want to put the nail in the group’s coffin, but it’s certain that, without Karl Tremblay’s voice, if it continues, it’s going to be another adventure. »

Like Freddie and Gerry

Posthumous albums are not necessarily testamentary, emphasizes Danick Trottier: Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Ian Curtis left songs when they died, but without necessarily having written them knowing they were doomed. In classical music, many composers have written under the impulse of life which is ending, adds the professor of musicology, who cites Mozart, Schubert and Gustav Mahler. Testamentary works are not necessarily posthumous either. “In popular music, the great model, for me, is Freddie Mercury,” he says. The Show Must Go On, recorded by Queen in 1990, took on powerful meaning when the singer died the following year. “It’s a bit of what we find with The good continuations And Thank you well! : life goes on, and the music remains,” says Mr. Trottier. In Quebec, we can think of the album Make it sweetwhose songs Gerry Boulet performed even though he knew he was suffering from cancer.

An illustration that evokes death

The cover of the disc Royal Pub – signed by the illustrator Pat Hamou – also marked Professor Danick Trottier. He sees several elements evoking death: the crow, firstly, which symbolizes death in Western culture, but also the journey of the spirit to the afterlife. The illustration also shows winter, dusk, the opposition between shadow and light… According to Danick Trottier, the trees and the horizon line even recall the shape of a cross. Fans also had fun analyzing the illustration, including Max Valois, from La Prairie. “The man who advances towards the light is Karl, who advances towards death,” he said.