Pierre-Hervé Goulet is the kind of artist who doesn’t make a splash, but who delivers quality albums every time. Dopamine, his fourth in his career, is in the same careful line as The Game of Lights, released two and a half years ago.
But while his previous album was more formal, Pierre-Hervé Goulet this time worked in a small committee, with drummer Marc Chartrain and the omnipresent multi-instrumentalist Simon Kearney as co-producers and the only musicians. The atmosphere is one of heady bass lines, sensual keyboards, alert guitars and delicate programming, and the singer’s airy voice is added with a soft and playful nonchalance that is frankly likeable.
Sense of melody that catches, groove very present in the tunes of Michael Kiwanuka, spare and precise writing: between folk and funk and even a touch of bossa-nova, Dopamine thus advances on an irrepressible wandering path, which translates well the sense of urgency of the title. This is what emerges from the subject too, a sort of ode to the pleasure of the present moment, but in which we allow ourselves a little look in the rearview mirror.
Time passes, but you have to enjoy it when it passes, and this slightly shaded joy exudes a rare and beneficial lightness at this moment. Above all, it is particularly well told, with small impressionistic touches, with an admirable sense of concision and evocation. It’s that of good song-makers.
