Québec Love

Album review

Robert Charlebois' follow-up to his groundbreaking 1968 psychedelic rock album Robert Charlebois/Louise Forestier, Québec Love was less extreme musically, as the singer/songwriter was finding a compromise between his folk influences and the American psychedelic movement. Most of the songs' lyrics were written by Marcel Sabourin and are, for the most part, incomprehensible even for native Québecers. His surrealistic imagery and hermetic puns give the music an almost pataphysical aura. "Te V'la" (Here Y'are), "Tout Écartillé" (All Spread), and "Sûrement Hong Kong" (Surely Hong Kong) feature a hot horn section, funky beats, and manic delivery by Charlebois. "Les Ailes d'un Ange" (Wings of an Angel) is folkier and because of that became a classic tune, with its chorus "If I had the wings of an angel/I'd go to Québec City" sung by all Québec teenagers able to play three chords on a guitar for decades to come. "Sensation," written on a poem by French 19th Century poet Arthur Rimbaud, shows the man's talent for delicate arrangements. "ÔÔÔ Margo," another off-the-wall psychedelic number, introduces the bombastic (almost Liberace-like) piano playing that would become Charlebois' signature in the mid-'70s. The album ends with "La Fin du Monde" (The End of the World), an orgiastic piece that was part of the singer's landmark stage performance "L'Osstidshow," performed with Mouffe, Louise Forestier, and Yvon Deschamps. Quoting the Book of Revelations, the piece starts with a faint theme and escalates to total freeform screaming, only to cut abruptly -- a stunning finale.

© François Couture /TiVo