“You thought that was what it was, but that’s not what it was.” Alaclair Ensemble warned us in 2016.

The music of the five Quebecers is not just about catchy choruses and catchy melodies. They have come together again to offer a work of just over an hour where unifying songs are rare, but where reflections on current topics are numerous.

“This album does not exist elsewhere. It’s still a source of pride, especially in rap, to maintain this uniqueness,” the group’s producer, Vlooper, told us in an interview.

Musically, Paternal Milk is still a good source of nods, especially Splash and the most recent single Stack. Entirely instrumental, the penultimate piece, Les stages du deuil, is a brilliant composition that would have been a great conclusion to the disc. We will come back to it.

The other piece whose production stands out is Ton ami conspi. The jazz atmosphere, the progression, the scratches of SevDee, the sample R

Despite the title, this song is not about conspiracy theories. “You think we’re going to laugh at conspis, but you realize [listening to him] that maybe you are. We all have a conspicuous friend and we are all conspicuous friends of someone,” KNLO told us.

Other themes that tend to cause division, such as wokism, cancel culture or eco-anxiety, are addressed throughout the 16 titles. Arrows are also sent to public figures, the Quebec entertainment industry and local hip-hop artists. It’s generally done with humor, especially when it’s sung by Claude Bégin on interludes that seem to have been recorded in a saloon.

There are also some moving moments, especially when it comes to their friend Karim Ouellet, who disappeared in November 2021.

Let’s finish with what opens and loops Lait paternal. Surprisingly, resuming À la claire fontaine was not an idea the band had been entertaining for years. The meaning of the traditional song lyrics combined with the album cover and overall message is remarkably consistent.

One can understand that the artists think that Pas fou le mec also has a place on this disc and that they find it “incredible”. We can also think that it is excessive in several respects, because a joke of more than eight minutes is a long time. Especially on a retro house beat that clashes. But hey, she’s not at the end for nothing.