LES VOYAGES DE L'ÂME

Somebody help me, this is a fine ride!

For a change, let's get the complaints out of the way first. The singer should scream at the top of his lungs a bit more, though I do enjoy the more caressing vocals as well. The production is better than the last one but only barely, because there still is no bottom end.

That said, at my age I should not be listening to this kind of music at all. I'm the wrong demographic. That their sound can resound throughout the ages, which it does, should give everyone a clue. And I don't even understand French. This kind of stuff is universal. We needn't know the lyrics when the music is right on, when the music assumes the correct forms and draws us in like moths to the candle. That's what Alcest does. And they do it so well on this album.

We understand the guitar motifs in their guises. We understand the choir-like vocals. We understand the infuences, whether it be The Wipers or Neil Young. We absolutely understand that universal stuff, which in this case occasionally drops us to our knees and makes us weep like babies.

LIsten to Autre Temps. The soothing intro with its chiming guitar. You are amongst friends. All is well. Then a wall of guitars appears. Is it not all the better? I enjoy long pieces of music, pieces that reveal themselves to me in stages, A reverberating guitar there, a plaintive vocal there, a wall of sound here. It's the here that I hear HERE. I love a metal-ish racket as much as anyone, and I always appreciate it when done with the utmost care.

Summer's Glory is the final track here. It's perhaps the best, certainly not musically, but in some ways well.... It recalls that Summer of '67, and maybe a little Guns N Roses, maybe intentionally, maybe not. If I knew I'd tell you. But it sure sounds to me like a band paying some homage to those that came before, those whose wagons dug the ruts at no small expense. And it sounds like a band who is happy to follow in those ruts, and in fact maybe dig a few new ones as long as they are heading down that road.

What the hell, this is a great album.

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