We didn’t think we would have to saddle our horse before listening to the new one – and already fifth! – Barrdo album. However, it is to the chords of a guitar in love with country that Jour inouï begins to trot… before the twilight of the beloved chords of Paul Daraîche a few seconds later at the center of the offering of the intro piece, When the time comes.
Glad that this horsey ballad is only a short musical aside, because it is in the typical folk of the 1970s that we love our Barrdo, the one who caught our ears with his easy and well-crafted refrains… and who was came to deliver to us not on horseback, but by bike – in exchange for a beer, no hiding place here – a physical copy of his record (the) meanders of thirst, released in the middle of a pandemic.
On his new album, the songs Never enough, You can stay if you want and – above all – Terre en vue throw at us the melancholy of the artist about departures, romantic relationships and inevitable sorrows.
Barrdo has refined his writing over the years, the author’s experience is evident. And to accompany his mature lyrics, guitar, organ and drums make up the first instrumental trio. The author-composer, a lover of classical arrangements, also treats himself to the sounds of violin and cello coming from the bows of the Lunes quartet.
But there is not only folk orchestrated on this new opus. It grooves politely on ça se peut-tu (thanks to David Bujold on bass, the leader of Fuudge, a group in which Pierre-Alexandre plays… bass). There’s also that smoky cannabis rock heard on Tabarnak, which recalls the work of Fred Fortin. We also note the comic piece C’estcorrect, where Alexandre talks to us about the difficult life of a songwriter… he who is also at the head of the independent Montreal label Poulet Neige (you have to live well, right?).
The presence of multi-instrumentalist Jérôme Dupuis-Cloutier – who has accompanied Les Cowboys Fringants on stage for years – on trumpet, trombone and horn allows Barrdo to avoid copying his past work. A welcome invitation and one that we hope to repeat in the future.
Barrdo ends his new album by singing “seems to me I’m due/seems to me it’s time…”. Okay: if you don’t know, it would be time to discover this artist.