L'HEPTADE

L'heptade is Harmonium's final studio album, and in my opinion one of the greatest albums ever made. It's difficult to top their previous album, but this album just has everything you want in a prog album. It's deep, explorative, melodic, beautiful, you name it. Some of the charm might be lost with the language barrier as the whole album is in french, especially because it's a concept album, but I still think it should be an universal experience. Let's go in depth

Prologue starts this album with a beautiful orchestral piece by Chotem. It perfectly sets up the mood for the album, a pretty good opening overall (4/4)

Comme un fou is one of the many great tracks on this album, it's very energetic and overall one of harmonium's greatest creations (8/8)

Sommeil sans rêves is essentially a transition by Chotem again, which is perfectly acceptable (1/1)

Chanson Noire is the jazziest part of this album, with Subirana engaging in some pretty cool sax and clarinet solos. Another absolute classic of Quebec's music (8/8)

Le Premier Ciel is straight up the greatest song on this album in my opinion. It's the only one to feature Normandeau (an original member who was essentially sacked for this album) but when then Locat's keyboard solo at the end might be one of the greatest in prog's history (11/11)

L'Exil is the final track on the first disc, and it's also the weakest one. It's still very greatest but with the competition on that disc and the fact this song has a little too much emptiness to it makes it my least favorite on that side (11/13)

Disc 2 is a lot more ambiant, for the better or for the worse, Le Corridor is for the better though. It's the only track the female signer Fauteux signs lead and the delivery is insane. The final portion of the song is another instrumental part, it's very great (8/8)

Lumières De Vie is the weakest song on this album, and that's saying something. Yes, it's long and there's often not much going on, it's an aesthetic that some people don't like. It's decent, but what totally saves this track is the final minute, the song is just a massive buildup to one of the greatest guitar solo of all time. If only it was longer, this track would have been insane (11/14)

Comme un Sage is essentially the final track of the album, and it delivers. It's also a classic in Quebec's music, and while more ambiant than disc 1, on this one it feels perfectly natural. Its one of the most recognizable melody on this whole album, it's just a great closer (14/14)

Epilogue is obviously just the official end with another instrumental track by Chotem, it's pretty good. (2/3)

TOTAL SCORE: 78/84 = 93. An easy 5 stars, not just one of the greatest Quebecois album, one of the greatest albums of all time

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