Following listening to the first extracts released in recent weeks, we agreed – and wrote in these pages – that Gros Soleil offered rock drenched “in nostalgia for the good years of Mötley Crüe, Poison and Kiss”.
So here comes 2038, an album that could have been titled 1988, because the entire work – 10 compositions – wonderfully plagiarizes the guitar picks of C.C. DeVille and the drumsticks of Tommy Lee. Ah, that decade of music when hairspray and spandex were as important to bands as creating a good riff or catchy chorus!
Speaking of catchy choruses: it’s hard to beat the one heard on Banff. “I smoke pot, I eat mush, Ban-Ban-Banff/I’m freaking out, I’m emptying my pockets, Kelowna,” shouts Dominic Lamoureux, singer and guitarist of the quartet, which also includes the experienced Christian Boileau, Sébastien Boucher as well as his brother, Frédéric.
To support these talented musicians, the production was entrusted to Steeven Chouinard (Le Couleur, Choses Sauvages, Valence, Jimmy Hunt). The result is the logical continuation of Occulture populaire, their first album released in the middle of a pandemic. The guys once again offer rock pieces with assumed kitsch. The love for arena rock is evident!
By paying attention to the text, we finally understand why Gros Soleil titled this album with a futuristic date: the group is in fact looking at the future of Humanity, or rather at its non-future. The environmental crisis, people’s lack of responsibility, individualism and the excesses of society are thus exposed, denounced and decried. No, it’s not rosy. Everything burns. No Future. And during this time “we drink lattes that are not fair trade/With milk from cows exploited in stables/Almond milk that siphons off drinking water”, we hear on Montagne bleue.
A committed band that plays spandex rock? Yes, we can say that about Gros Soleil.
