Selective Listening | The best of 2024 by Alexandre Vigneault

Published at 9:00 a.m.

WednesdayFlorent Vollant

That this record exists is already an achievement: Florent Vollant brought it to fruition after recovering from a stroke which left him less mobile and energetic than before. That he is so handsome is a great comfort. With the support of those closest to him (his son Mathieu Mckenzie, Kim Fontaine and André Lachance, who signs most of the texts in Innu-aimun), the icon of Innu folk has concocted a collection of songs full of beauty and imbued with fragility touching here on blues, there on country and even on reggae. His breath is shorter than before, but his groove is all there. What we feel vibrating in these songs is life which continues despite challenges. Wednesday is the fruit of a collective, almost family effort, and recalls a beautiful and simple thing: there is strength in unity.

Visions, Norah Jones

Too wise, Norah Jones? We have often thought this over the last two decades. And here comes Visionsa disc full of colors, imbued with light psychedelia and driven by a certain groove. What a nice surprise! There is a breath of freedom on this record, produced in collaboration with Leon Michels (Els Michel Affair, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings), that we also felt on stage at the beginning of the summer during his appearance as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival. There is nothing that stands out about Visionswhich does not prevent its creator from being more daring than usual on a melodic level and from trying more grainy guitars here and there. Really, a nice surprise that we didn’t expect.

Jazz

Visions

Norah Jones

Verve / Universal

Islanded, Monica Freire

We were no longer expecting Mônica Freire, whose previous album, Na Lajedates back to 2008. Let’s dare to say the cliché: the wait will have been worth it. This album shows a whole new side of the Brazilian-born singer-songwriter. On this disc, she integrates her oriental musical roots for the very first time. Without abandoning the samba, she uses instruments with typical sounds of the Middle East such as the oud, the derbouka and the kanun, which coexist in a perfectly natural way with her guitar, her soft voice and electronic violin making. These songs, imbued with sadness, but also kindness, constitute small mixed symphonies that are both inventive and extremely comfortable to the ear. This record does a lot of good!

Mixed music

Ilhada

Monica Freire

Audiogram

Personal decline, Calamine

Calamine has the meaning of the formula. His words are rebellious and his humor is just sloppy enough to grate on fierce ears. On Personal declineshe once again asserts her feminism and her anti-capitalist ideas in finely crafted songs which also tell the story of her neighborhood and her loves. No, I’m not their target audience. Yes, I would be lying if I said I listen to his songs all day long. But its musicality and sound flow excite me. His clever words, his combat prose, I want to say, seem essential to me. Few artists have this asset.

RAP

Personal decline

Calamine

Calamine / Kèthe Magané

Songs of a Lost World, The Cure

The Cure is by far the group I listened to the most in my youth. Enough to know every vocal inflection of virtually every song Robert Smith recorded until 1992. All that to say, I’m a tough customer… The Cure never ceased to amaze me on stage – no, but what a voice he still has it, the old crow! –, but on record, it was a long purgatory of more than 30 years. Until Songs of a Lost Worldpublished in the fall. No, the magic is no longer what it was before. Except there is no other group capable of making shards of onyx and obsidian shine like that. That Robert Smith and his friends can extract such black pearls from such a precisely mapped musical universe is a feat in itself. The old fan in me bows.

Rock

Songs of a Lost World

The Cure

Lost Music /Polydor