Best of the Best 2014 (part 2)

What a good year for the filles! ”But you can only pick one”, Guuz godfather of Filles Sourires told us. So here it is, not random chosen of course, but taken from the outstanding album Lunes by this beautiful freckled girl from Canada, Chloé Lacasse. A track that completely fulfilled its promise after the auspicious intro, just as the whole album does: Renverser la Vapeur.

Chloé Lacasse – Renverser la Vapeur

Chloé Lacasse

(Steve J is now an official author of FillesSourires! Hooray!)

Back in 2011 I stumbled across the eponymous debut album from that year’s Francouvertes winner Chloé Lacasse, an album that managed to seamlessly encompass rock, pop, tender ballads and even threw-in a few Bristollian trip-hop beats – and in “Tout va bien” featured one killer of a contender for song of the year… Fast forward to 2014 and the release of “Lunes”, the theoretically oh-so-difficult sophomore album…
Lacasse
If her debut album seemed to touch all musical bases, “Lunes” sees Chloé focused on a more adult and mature, thoughtful sound. Gone is the “turn the volume up all the way to eleven” – this time it’s those pure and crystalline vocals that were hinted at previously which take centre-stage – the music complements rather than competes for attention. Moreover the clever use of percussion, strings, keyboards – even an auto-harp – help create a more tranquil, trance-like and atmospheric sound than the album’s predecessor; Coupled with Chloé’s ethereal and at times haunting voice, the end result is the most compelling of albums…

From the opening bars of the aforementioned auto-harp that resonates throughout “Rien pour moi” – a deliciously troubling portrayal of an emotionally challenged relationship – you realise that you are listening to something rather special. The songs on this album demand attention – the lyrics have a truly biographical feel and every song on this album sets a scene as a narrative unfurls.

On an album choc-full of stand-out compositions, it is perhaps remiss to highlight a mere handful of songs here, however the way that “Écoute sans parler” and the effortlessly way that the song ploughs a similar psychedelic furrow to two of last year’s standout albums – Hôtel Morphée’s “Des histoires de fantômes” and Forêt ‘s stunning eponymous debut; “Un oiseau dans la vitre” – and it’s wonderfully uplifting and soaring chorus and “Le piège” – all hypnotic grove and emotional rawness – all hint at how truly outstanding an album this is.

There’s a perfect synergy with lyricism and melody on display here; the end result is a truly outstanding album that deserves to be in any discerning record collection. Lunes” was released in the same week as Catherine Leduc’s “Rookie” – an album that I’ve just rated as year-list material. I’d argue that this album is proof that lightening does indeed strike twice.

Chloé Lacasse – Rien pour moi

Year lists (8)

Sorry, sorry, sorry, I’m a bit late with the year list and it looks that most of my FS-colleagues were way better and faster. But I’ll give it a shot.
There were as always disappointments; albums you waited for but that disappointed when they came out. But also pleasant surprises. Actually, there were a lot of them. It was harder to make a list of only ten albums, than a list of, say, 25 good ones. So no Austine, Brigitte, Brigitte Boisjoli,  Catherine Major, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Claire Denamur, Elsa Kopf, Ingrid St-Pierre, L. Liz Cherhal, Lou Lesage, Nous Non Plus, Yelle…
Without further ado: here is my personal top 10

(11). Karin Clercq  – Karin Clercq
A bit odd to start with a Top Ten with eleven, but I had too. when I got this EP of Karin Clercq I was very enthousiastic. Great voice great songs. I even prepared a post, but then I realised I already knew the songs. It turned out that it was an EP for the French Market with songs form her album of 2009. But still one of the highlights of 2011.

10. Lise – Lise
Played this album a lot this year. Fresh songs, pleasant voce. Unfortunately some songs in English, but the French ones are a lot better!

9. Isabelle Boulay – Les Grands Espaces
There are always artist you don’t like. Isabelle Boulay was one of them. I didn’t even bother to listen carefully, it is just “nah, not for me”.  But this year I did and I was pleasantly surprised by her album. French Americana album of the year.

8. Aurélie Cabrel – Oserais-je
One of the pleasant surprises this year. Surprisingly the highest “Daughter of” in My list. Sorry Charlotte…

7. Ödland – Sankta Lucia
European project from Lorenzo Papace, with two wonderful sisters Bingöllü.

6. Chloé Lacasse – Chloé Lacasse
First artist from Quebec on this list and certainly not the last one!

5. Stéphanie Crayencour – La garçonnière
If this list was ranking of hard to find albums, this one wold be very close to number 1. Took a lot of effort to find it, but it was worth it. Highest Belgian artist on this list. (Merci I. for your hard work again!).

4. Claire Keim – Ou il Pleuvra
Highest Claire in My list. It was close but Claire Denamur just dropped out the top 10. Poppy album but this Claire sings just like what we expect of a Fille Sourire…

3. Salomé Leclerc – Sous Les Arbres
Again an album form an artist from Quebec. What a talents are there. And they keep coming!

2. Mélanie Laurent – En t’attendant
Highest singing actress in the list (sorry again, Charlotte). Very balanced album, and just a very pleasant album to listen to. But Maks described it way better here.

1. Coeur de Pirate – Blonde
What more can I say.. as stated, there were a lot of good albums, but only one really superb album this year. And when you are so lucky to see her perform live, you can only agree: Beatrice Martin is a little diamond, that needs more recognition.

 


Chloé Lacasse

Montréal-based Chloé Lacasse sounds on her debut album like a cross between the tender ballads of Feist and the emotional outbursts of Marie-Pierre Arthur, with added fatback drums. She did the rounds like so many Canadian singers (various concours de la chanson, winning Francouverts this year), plays the piano and writes intelligent songs. This debut-album is released after two self-produced EP’s, and though you can hear what Chloé’s been listening to in the past years, she does have her own style. It’s rough round the edges, at times up to eleven (loud drums, piercing guitars), but she knows how to keep balance and, like in the song posted here, she can sound sweet as well. This is her single.

Chloe Lacasse – Pyromane