blesse - normal
Simone Records
Released March 24th, 2023
After last year’s Sled Island I boarded a flight to Montreal full of joy, the love of music —and (unbeknownst to me) Covid 19.
Luckily, this was a small and mild inconvenience, and before realizing I’d been infected by the Bozo whipped cream moshpits of Calgary, I was able to visit my favourite Montreal hotspots.
Poutine in a park, poutin in a parc, and then hitting the fries with gravy and cheese curds place and finding a green space to sit in.
I’d met with friends, and as we sat obstructing our colons we’d chat about the city, how amazing it is, how beautiful the architecture is, and how much easier life feels in Quebec for artists. The conversation turned to politics and the current state of the province, in particular Legault’s attempt to limit languages spoken in Quebec.
A friend of mine who spent some time in Korea piped up that Quebec just needs to “do a K-pop.” (er, Q pop?) That’s to say that promoting enticing art and music is the best way to make people want to learn and participate in culture. After hearing blesse I can’t help but agree.
I’m as guilty as any of switching off CBC’s Franco content or “Day-Soo-Lay”ing my way through a coffee order, but listening to a band like blesse definitely puts a l’abeille in mon bonnet.
There’s something incredibly brave and badass about a band as catchy as blesse repping Quebec culture. While listening to normal I was asked by friends, “is this Phoenix?” —as in the Parisian indie juggernaut who’ve stayed relevant for nearly 3 decades.
It’s a comparison that makes sense given the buzzing synths and mmm-mmm crispy tasty drum sounds that carry the 13 songs on Normal. There is no way these people didn’t work and rework each song down to the last note. “Amour Aride”, the first official track (after an intro hilariously too short to even merit a royalty) contracts and expands seamlessly into a perfect melancholic pop hit with enough creaky little meandering synth(?) riffs and yelps to appease even the staunchest critics.
“Gants Noir” (hey! That means black gloves, it’s working already!) Carries the rest of the album forward perfectly, setting the tone for what is best described as the blesse sound: snappy beats, sweeping synth flourishes, and beautiful little runs into absurdly catchy choruses.
This signature sound is most evident in the band’s single “creusercreuser” which features Sophia Bel on guest vocals. It starts off with the perfect amount of weirdness before shining as a perfect pop hit complete with a riff that takes you over like a bedbug infestation.
normal is an album that does what Francois Legault and his language police could never do. It makes me fall in love with Quèbec all over again. It’s a reminder of its effortlessly cool artists and creators, and it’s inventive as hell with just enough of an edge.
blesse have captured something incredible here on normal with a collection of insanely catchy tunes that are deceptively complex.
I might have to redownload Duolingo just so I can sing along.
- Blair Colwell
