HARMONIUM

I am finally owner of a copy of Harmonium's debut album--one which I first heard over 25 years ago and whose magic has never been far from my internal 'wish list.' My impressions from then--which have definitely been borne out with my recent acquisition and repeated listenings--is that this is a wonderful album with an energy quite similar to that of the debut album of AMERICA, only with its lyrics sung in French. With deepened familiarity, the album has an almost too familiar feeling to it--as if it is too similar to the America album. Throughout the album there is wonderful musicianship, nice song structures, enough interesting instrumental variations (e.g. trumpet in "Harmonium," the flute in "Si doucement," children's playground voices and guitar harmonics in "Aujourd'hui...," piano and flute in "Vielles courroies," electric piano in "100.000 raisons," metronome in "Attends-moi," zither harp in "Pour un instant," ) and, of course, as always, great vocals (both Serge's leads and the group's harmonies), but all in all there is not enough really catchy, memorable melodies, lines, or riffs to make this album anything more than a good album--and certainly not one to be highly recommended for its contributions to progress, progressive music, much less prog rock (though I cannot judge its contribution to the music development within Québec). A very nice French Canadian pop album with one extraordinary song, but nothing on the par of America's eponymously titled first album.

5 star song: "Un musicien parmi tant d'autres"

4 star songs: "Si doucement," "Aujourd'hui, je dis bonjours,"