The second album can mark the TRUE start of a career. Sometimes it’s the one that really launches an artist towards his public (Marie-Pierre Arthur, Dumas, With no helmet, Vincent Vallières…). Madame Autruche has reached this important stage and offers its second opus, magnificently titled Wake me when the weather is nicewhile the January cold rages.
Who ? Miss Ostrich. This eye-catching stage name is that of Mélisande Archambault. The one who worked in the collectives Les Royal Pickles, Groenland and Canailles came to the fore for the first time in 2019, with the album slippery slopesbefore making a string of appearances at festivals — Coup de cœur francophone, Granby, then the Francouvertes.
At the beginning of 2023, she takes the microphone and offers this Wake me when the weather is nice. In the production, the work of Tonio Morin-Vargas (Bon Enfant, Olivier Bélisle) paid off. Madame Ostrich sings to tunes sixties where the instruments – mainly electric and sliding guitars, organ and drums – recall the joyful pop-rock of the end of this decade marked by free love. The plagiarism is well done.
As you listen, pieces stand out from the crowd. We mainly think of Do you want to dance ? which rises, in our humble opinion, above the eight other pieces of this short 34-minute album by its originality.
On dark notes of a piano and a bass, Madame Autruche slams into our ears — stuttering — her amorous disarray, carried by a greasy guitar — which recalls the work of Fred Fortin: , exhilarating, exciting, smiling / Haunts my thoughts / Hold me tight / Give me what you can’t give me. »
We would have taken more compositions of this ilk: it seems to us that it is in this formula that the voice of Madame Autruche – which lacks tone, let’s say it – is best exploited.
Lost loves are at the heart of the themes deployed by the author-composer. They are expected. Desired… but rarely possible. Do not rely on the good-natured sounds that weave the musical canvas of this disc : the artist does not have easy or happy love (“I’m here to fight / For the fire to stay lit / Even if the wood is half wet”, she notes on the piece fireflies).
We therefore wish Madame Autruche to find a few moments of happiness with his public, those who will discover the artist thanks to this second album, marked by solid compositions and colorful texts.
folk-rock
Wake me when the weather is nice
Lady Ostrich
Lady Ostrich