Loïc April stood out in 2018 with a debut album that was a lot more rock than average. The ex-advertiser subsequently only released a maxi in 2020. This second full album, which is finally arriving, required three years of work for the multi-instrumentalist, who collaborated closely with director Jean-Michel Coutu (Corridor , Jesuslesfilles).
The titles of his songs are always particularly long and colorful – Like a stretcher for your ambulance, Loving you like we fold a fitted sheet –, but above all, we find there with pleasure the same punk-rock passion, which evokes Malajube as much as the Vulgaires Machins. And if Loïc April adds a touch of pop and sometimes even electronic sounds to the saturated guitars and heavy bass lines, as in You can’t die anymoremake no mistake: more lightness does not mean less raw.
The general atmosphere is intense, therefore. There is also an economy of words in the singer’s writing which combines perfectly with the form, which is striking and which sounds strong. It moves from a reference to Nelligan – “ What is spasm of living », he asks on the amusing My Wranglers and I – to a melancholy tribute to the Expos in Summer recedes in three takes – “ White, red and blue/Our loves are getting old/And summer is fading away in three takes » –, but it is clear first of all that he has a sense of the rock image, as does, for example, Feu! Chatterton in France.
Given their quality, we are not surprised to find the name of Philippe B as text advisor. But the basic material, which speaks of the pleasures of the night and complicated loves, is certainly already quite solid in itself, and gives off an incandescence that cannot be invented.
From the first to the last of the eight pieces of this concentrated album which passes at full speed, Loïc April is not afraid of lyricism, nor of being “too much”. Songs like Stereo (which opens the album, and which begins with the three notes of the Montreal metro bell!), The instructions Or Failing to believe it are carried by a real frenetic breath and a galvanizing power. And frankly, this excess of ardor, or exaltation, or any word in that sense… feels good.
Extract of Failing to believe it
Rock
Loïc April II
Loïc April
Independent