Posted at 7:00 am.
Rat Saw God, Wednesday
I had never been to Asheville, a small town of about 90,000 people in North Carolina, when the leader of the country-grunge band Wednesday, Karly Hartzman, took me there and made me realize that I was already there, or at least, his Portraits of an idle youth who only knows how to have fun seemed strangely familiar to me. Easily the album of the year, especially for those who believe that If It Makes You Happy would have been even more of the best song of all time if Sheryl Crow had recorded it with the Smashing Pumpkins.
Alternative rock
Rat saw God
Wednesday
Dead oceans
Sprint!, Thierry Larose
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Thierry Larose, at Club Soda in November
Legend has it that just minutes before taking the stage, Thierry Larose warned his musicians that he wanted to try out a new song, “Portrait of a Marianne,” without giving them any information other than the chords to play. Don't stress, man. The very Dylanesque seven-minute drive through the interior, the Sprint! opened. is like the rest of this second album: the work full of impressions of a creator who is both wise and childish, who trusts life and music. With him it's impossible not to feel his heart pounding in his chest. He can do whatever he wants.
Rock in French
Sprint!
Thierry Larose
Bravo music
Free electrons from Quebec, population II
PHOTO DIDIER PIGEON-PERREAULT, PROVIDED BY BONSOUND
Population II
Sometimes in life we just hope to be swept along by the whirlwind of a riff that suddenly blots out everything around us, the better to attune ourselves to the cosmic power of decibels. When that need arises again, turn to the members of Population II, the city's most trusted purveyors of hypnotic rhythms and enchanting solos in which to dissolve your being and soul. The favorite album of metalheads, whose record collection includes a large part of astral jazz and space funk. An ode to the eternal sovereignty of rock that touches all the senses.
Psychedelic rock
Free Electrons from Quebec
Population II
Bon sound
Free your pussy, NOBRO
PHOTO DANIEL ESTEBAN, PROVIDED BY DINE ALONE RECORDS
NO BROTHER
Sometimes in life we just hope to be swept up in the vortex of a perfect punk chorus that will suddenly make us want to finish our beer (or mocktail) in one gulp. The playful admonition in the title of NOBRO's first full-length album, “Set Your Pussy Free,” is apparently aimed only at those of their fans who have a vagina, but in reality it is all forms of emancipation that their anthems in the form celebrating middle fingers that would have taken up a place of choice on any volume of the Big Shiny Tunes compilation. Give me more, give me more, give me, give me more!
Punk rock
Release your pussy
NO BROTHER
Dine Alone Records
Prudence is Denise, the Goyette brothers
PHOTO SARAH FORTIN, PROVIDED BY BRAVO MUSIQUE
The Goyette Brothers
If we had to leave 2023 with only one song in our pocket, it would certainly be Ponton de mer, the duo of the Goyette brothers and Karl Tremblay, which was already very moving when it was released in April and which is now It's impossible to listen without your eyes being as wet as they were at the end of the platform. Populated by little Joe connaissants, ordinary magicians and soapbox operators, the Champlain brothers' fourth album once again treads the path of caricature, but this time against a backdrop of melancholy, to sing (literally and figuratively) the strength of the connections, thanks to which we never sail towards the horizon alone.
Country rock
Prudence is Denise
The Goyette Brothers
Bravo music
My other five songs from 2023
My Disco Sweater (feat. Lou-Adriane Cassidy), Zombie Life Mon Cœur
Gout Gout Dolls (feat. Guillaume Beauregard), Mudie
Heaven looks like you, Fanny Bloom
The Downslope, Alex Burger
My way, vanilla