Every month, our music journalists add around 20 songs to La Presse’s Spotify playlist. These recent titles can be found in our selection.
This is a piece that seemed tailor-made for Alanis Morissette, the kind of song she could have composed herself. So here it is, the Canadian rocker has been invited to make her own the song No Return, theme of the hit series Yellowjackets composed by Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker and which notably stars the Quebec actress Sophie Nélisse. It’s actually Alanis Morissette’s version that has been used since the fourth episode of season 2, but an extended version is now available on streaming platforms. “It was a bit intimidating to be asked to re-perform [No Return], but I see parallels between Yellowjackets and my perspective when composing,” said the Ottawa singer, who confessed to being a fan of the series.
The province is full of talented beatmakers. Ausgang Plaza, a performance hall and cultural venue in Montreal, wanted to highlight some of them through the web series Loop Sessions: Connexion Québec. In the past few months, groups of artists from five cities have each produced a piece demonstrating the quality and diversity of hip-hop made here. The songs were put together on an EP which is now available on streaming platforms. You can hear productions from the renowned High Klassified, VLooper, Foxtrott and Nicholas Craven. We chose the last song, Trifluvie, by Yerly, Slumm and Daniel Quirion. This instrumental piece is perfect for those first days when you really feel like spring.
If the hushed blues radiated thanks to the presence of a lively saxophone on the first extract of his forthcoming EP, Angel Olsen returns to his favorite accompanist for the unveiling of this second piece, the electric guitar. The title track of the EP allows the American singer to dazzle us once again with the simple play of her vocalization, so clear and precise, placed in front of a few discreet and soft chords of an electric guitar. Nothing explosive here: we rather let ourselves be rocked, while she tells us that “Each moment arrives and then disappears, But the searching goes on, Forever. » Very true Angel.
A year and a half after the release of their second album, the electro group Choses Sauvages arrives with a brand new piece entitled Mort de Peur. A pop track that highlights the particular voice of singer Félix Bélisle, always carried by the incandescent groove and the rhythmic loops typical of the group. With a few dissonant guitar riffs and surprising saxophone touches, which arrive right in the heart of the song, the atmosphere is as disturbing as it is dancing. It worked, but still, it has to be done.
The release of Dominique Fils-Aimé’s previous album dates back to February 2021. Here comes a new song by the Montreal singer-songwriter, with spring and an appropriate title: Cheers to New Beginnings, splendid song of hope in which we find with delight his hushed voice and his high-level new soul. And good news, we are also announcing a new album, Our Roots Run Deep, for the fall.
Last fall, Émile Bilodeau launched an album almost in secret, All Alone Like a Big One, which looked a little garrulous. We therefore welcome this new song more rock, more mature too, but in which we have the impression of reconnecting with the Émile of the first times, both lucid and melancholic, funny but also moving. Which bodes well for the future, since the singer-songwriter announces the release for the fall of his fifth album, Au bar des espoirs, which will be produced by Simon Kearny. A friendly and artistic meeting which seems to have given very beautiful results.
It is with a ballad to which she adds a melancholy and a languor of which she alone has the secret that Lana Del Rey makes us wait a few more days before the release of her ninth album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, the March 24. The offering promises to be generous with 16 songs and 77 minutes of music. Sleek, the piano arrangements of The Grants extract leave plenty of room for gospel-inspired vocal harmonies. The three singers who accompany Lana Del Rey are none other than Melodye Perry, Pattie Howard and Shikena Jones, who appeared in the excellent documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, focusing on great singers in the history of popular music who have remained too much in the dark.
Admittedly, this is a cover… But what a cover! Florence the Machine brilliantly tackles the song that propelled the group No Doubt into the stratosphere of groups to listen to… in the 1990s. Twenty-eight years later, this piece comes back to life thanks to the Yellowjackets series, accompanying the second season trailer. Florence strips it of its original ska essence to give us… well, Florence the Machine! Vaporous opening, change of tempo, great place for percussion, a choir and strident notes of a piano which acts as a common thread. We repeat, a big recovery.
The inspiration for the title of KNLO’s new piece comes from his longtime friend Étienne Bossé, aka Bosslab. Graphic designer, the latter has collaborated with the rapper on many occasions as well as with his group, Alaclair Ensemble, and Souldia, among others. The piece is described as a “still life” in which challenges to art and the state of our society are discussed. The canvas is a creation of VLooper, which provides the sounds of Alaclair’s albums. The result is a catchy and bouncy track. The versatility of KNLO’s flow is once again highlighted, as well as the intelligence of his pen.
The singer-songwriter offers a new song, Polymorphe, which is in the exact continuity of her second album Musivision released in 2021. We find her ethereal and mysterious universe, always on the border of dream and reality, more dream pop than ever and lying on a soft bed of synths. The rocking melody, the caressing voice, all contribute to the dreamlike character of Laurence-Anne’s music, and it’s always a pleasure to curl up in it.
The septet Comment Debord had launched its excellent first record in the midst of a pandemic, and we must admit that we feared that it would not survive this difficult period. So what a joy to rediscover the vernacular poetry and the irresistible groove of the most laid-back band in town, which precisely calls in this new disco-funk song to the pleasure of dancing and partying! Comment Debord also announces shows in November, so we can expect a new album in the coming months.
A first Sub Pop album released in 2021 that we quickly forgot, let’s say it, but now Leal Neale is back in force and could well mark the pop-rock scene this year, she who will offer Star Eaters Delight at the end of the month of April. Listening to this piece suggests a beautiful sunny spring for the American. We are here in the easy ritornello, the catchy rhythms, typed for the radio waves… and for the cerebral cortex: difficult indeed to forget and not to dance under the notes of guitars and organ (yes, yes, d ‘organ). And what a beautiful bassline!
Almost four years since the release of her magnificent third album, The Ballad of the Runaway Girl. The Inuk singer is giving us a nice gift at the end of winter with Uummati Attarnarsimat, her very personal version of Blondie’s classic Heart of Glass. Translated into Innuktituk by Elisapie herself and produced by her accomplice Joe Grass, the song which was born in 1979, in the heart of the disco wave, here takes on a much more melancholy dimension. Beautiful.
Less than a year after the release of her first album The Paradise Club, Claudia Bouvette is already releasing a new song. On Highly Unrecommended, the prolific singer-songwriter is still as interested in the movements of the heart and the body, and offers a frankly well-turned melancholy pop song about forbidden loves. Here is one that has found its place.
Director and multi-instrumentalist Félix Petit is relaunching his FELP project with a new song, in collaboration with singer-songwriter Klô Pelgag. Félix Petit is usually less at the forefront, since he works as a producer and as a musician with artists like Les Louanges, Hubert Lenoir or Safia Nolin. On Babyfoot, a jazzy and frenetic song, Klô Pelgag sings in a flow that approaches rap. Good news: the song is the first single from an upcoming FELP album, due later this year.
The always prolific Jon Matte, singer-songwriter behind The Franklin Electric project, seems to have an infinity of songs in mind, which he never hesitates to share by regularly releasing new singles. This time, it is with the piece Call Me that he charms us. An all-acoustic piece, with a repeated riff, on which he uses repetition to tell a person he loves that he doesn’t want to see them leave. His folk is touching, Call Me listens like a lullaby.
Montreal director and DJ Robert Robert’s first album of songs, Silicone Villeray, delighted us two years ago. We find him again with Alex, a slightly disillusioned new pop song, as strange as it is danceable. We are pleased to see that the new singer-songwriter has not lost touch, and if in addition Alex announced the coming of a new album to brighten up our summer, we could not be happier.
VioleTT Pi is the project of singer-songwriter Karl Gagnon, who had not released an album since Manifeste contre la fear in 2016. Good news, He who waits, the new song very melodious and catchy which he has just launched, announces a new album for April 21, Baloney Suicide – this is also the title of his collection of poetry released in 2019. The one who waits is surprisingly less punk than what he told us regulars, but we have no doubt that VioleTT Pi has some surprises in store for us for the future.
David Bujold says it – or rather shouts it – and, after listening, we confirm that yes, everything is fine on this new track from the Montreal stoner rock band. The guitars are strident, the drums are strong and the bass fat, while the jerky rhythm heard allows you to tap your feet and multiply your headbutts. The irony of the lyrics adds to the – not guilty – pleasure of listening to this song, a prelude to an album expected in May. In this era of economic austerity and political gloom, we like to be shouted “Ta yeule tout va ben” at the top of our lungs by a Bujold in great vocal form.
Formed in 2013, jazz trio Slowly Rolling Camera have been slowing down the beat for a few years. After three albums and an EP, Galois Dave Stapleton, Elliot Bennett and Deri Roberts announced at the end of 2022 their intention to release fewer albums… but more singles. And here comes this piece, the second collaboration in a few weeks with the Finnish trumpeter Verneri Pohjola. The atmosphere is warm, calm, conducive to a glass of wine while watching the sunset. All that’s missing is summer…
A new song by Philippe B, six years after La grande nuit vidéo, is already good news. That we announce at the same time the imminent arrival of a new album, it is joy and joy! In Nouvelle administration, a song about change and new beginnings, we find the essence of what we love about the singer-songwriter: a perfectly chiseled text, a stirring melody, a sober coating that makes the song even more moving. We didn’t realize we missed him so much.
Hauterive is the name of a brand new duo made up of music road warriors and longtime friends Catherine Durand and Mara Tremblay. The two singer-songwriters, who have had solo careers for twenty years, have pooled their talents to create an album which will be released at the end of April. This first song, Aller-retour, which evokes the road and life on tour, is a joy of harmonies and pure and light folk. If the sequel is on the same level, these two are about to strike a blow.
