On the program this week, the album by the group Square and an unreleased record by Young with Crazy Horse
Square, Like the night (Square)
In civilian life, Olivier Delamarre is a project manager for the municipality of Beauvais. His specialty? Culture. But behind this honorable activity, the man is also a remarkable songwriter nicknamed Pedro by his close friends. At 54, he is certainly not the new kid on the block. But the album he is presenting today with his group Square is the fruit of very long years of practicing music. Until 2007, the man made it the spice of his life, before retiring, out of weariness. From high school, he distinguished himself behind the drums, in several local groups. He long dreamed of making it his profession before being forced to reinvent himself. The transition to fifty and the confinement jointly reactivate a desire for music barely buried in 2020. In passing, Delamarre swapped the drums for the guitar, and English for French. And so much the better: his lyrics, both personal and cryptic, are in the style of Bashung, Daniel Darc or Bertrand Belin. We have known worse references. We also think a lot about the timbre of Florent Marchet. Atmospheric climates, tonic melodies, this first album under the name of Square is a hidden treasure of French rock production. Two guitars, a bass, a drum kit, intelligent songs. Square does not invent anything, but delivers accessible, touching and stimulating music.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Early Daze (Warner)
This year marked the return to the stage of Canadian-American Neil Young, who had not performed in public since the 2020 lockdown episode. It was of course accompanied by the faithful musicians of Crazy Horse that he gave concerts showing that at the age of 78, he has much more energy than people half his age. To celebrate their fifty-six years of musical companionship, Young & Crazy Horse released an album resulting from studio sessions in 1969, Early Daze. A great way to return to the sources of their music. We hear nothing less than the birth of a sound, at the crossroads of garage rock, country and folk. All in the service of great songs, some of which will become classics, such as Helpless. Before recording it with Crosby, Stills & Nash, Young had recorded it with Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina and Danny Whitten. The tracks honor the memory of the latter, a superb guitarist and singer who passed away in 1972. The musicians sound very youthful on these tracks, but already show an impressive mastery. Alternative versions of pieces like Come on Baby Let’s Go Downtown, Cinnamon Girl and Down by the River, are the spice of this new volume published by Young, who has been digging into his archives relentlessly for 20 years now.
