LOUGAROU

This is an important band in the history of Canadian music. With Franco-Ontarian roots, the band combined an appreciation for French Canadian folk music with (then-) contemporary art-rock forms of composition. It took a little while longer for the disco and punk scenes transform the record industry in Canada, thankfully, allowing bands like Garolou and Rush (and the record companies there were signed to) to put out high-quality music for a couple of years longer in the late 1970s than in the US or UK where from 1976 onwards bands were being pressured to change their style. This band released their debut album under the name Lougarou, and only subsequently changed it to Garolou on their second album. While not quite as developed as their second album (Garolou), this is high quality music, and an excellent debut album. While some of the tracks remain pretty folky (including the opening track, Dis-Moi Charles, which is not to say they are in any way inferior), other tracks became staples of French-Canadian progressive rock (La Belle Francoise, A la Claire Fontaine, etc). The music is highly memorable after a couple of plays (a number of the songs stick in your head), and although firmly rooted in the 1970s has aged gracefully and so does not sound (too) dated these days. The soloists are not virtuosos by any means, but the playing is highly evocative and musical (more like Gilmour's guitar solos). This album remains on our family playlist (it still gets requests when we drive up to camping in the summer!), which (anecdotally I realize) speaks to its longevity. Although not essential, this is lasting quality music. I give it 8.1 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which puts it at 4 PA stars.