PASSIONS

Compared with 77's Temps De L'autre, CR&A underwent a lot of pzersonnel changes, where only Moullet and Ribeiro remain, but with a returning Lemoine (whi will make his presence felyt as he's quite involved in the songwriting), making ex-Gong members (Shamal-era) two in this Alpes line-up along with percussionist Mireille Bauer. In the meantime, since their previous album, Catherine had recorded one or two solo albums, the first being homage to French poet Jacque Prevert, and another to anarchist singer Ferré. With a nature & wind snapshot of Catherine gracing blandly Passions, I always wondered why the much more impressive and militant and drawn (by Moullet himself) artwork on the inner sleeve didn't make it on the outer one, but most likely this was a record company decision

Passions is a bit of a departure musically, boosting shorter songs with the exception of two "monster tracks" with a much changed sound and even Ribeiro's vocals being recorded differently. This is immediately noticeable with the opening Iona Melodies where Lemoine writes the music and Catherine sings about her daughter changing her life, David Rose's violin being much too present and when not, guest Kennyatta's sax being obtrusive. Frères Humains is a return to previous Alpes albums and a highlight here. If it wasn't for Rose's (bad and sounding like a cheap fiddle) violin, you could easily imagine the following Cristalpin being on a Gong album of the later 70's, percussionist Mireille Bauer's presence clinching it. Starting out on an instrumental prog intro, Tous les Droits Sont Dans La Nature is another one of one those huge cries from Catherine about her utopias and generous ideals over an often changing "background" (only because it could've been recorded a tad louder in the mix) music.

The flipside holds the 11-mins+ L'Oiseau Devant La Porte, which starts in a lengthy prog instrumental intro, before Ribeiro tells us of the fresh young enthusiastic bird hitting the realities of our closed society's realities. While a good prog number, the track only convinces partly, because Ribeiro's lyrics are a bit off the mark and they dictate too much the music. Following the guitar instrumental Alpinette, Femme-Témoin is homage to Jane Fonda's anti-Vietnam stance and, while it comes over a decade after the facts, is impressive with percussionist Bauer renders the war realities particularly well. The closing Détournement De Chants (high-jacking of songs) is obviously from the same session as the opening track, this time with Kenyatta's sax and Campello's clarinet giving a strange glue-sniffing Supertramp- like feel over Lemoine's piano, but Catherine is taking wild shots at censorship.

While a bit different and not as representative of Alpes as others, Passions is still much worth owning, if you're into Alpes and want to own all the good albums. But personally I found David Rose's violin/fiddle all too often out of tune and not always inspired and it ruins a bit the album for me.

A surprisingly upbeat and tuneful album with mostly little short tracks this time around. It sounds quite different from all previous releases probably due to the fact that there's a cool fretless bass utilised throughout. There's also a greater number of keyboards which suits me fine. The addition of reverbed violin is quite good for a change too.

I find myself enjoying this a lot until some clown decides to give his saxophone an airing on 'Détournements De Chants'. I don't know who it is, but it leaves my face looking like I'm smelling a crate of six week old dead fish, I last had this experience whilst listening to Gary Numan's awful 'Warriors' LP in '83. What was heading for any easy four stars is deservedly punished and reduced to three.

With the psychedelic and prog era ceding into the more commercial and accessible sounds of punk rock, new wave, disco and various forms of chart topping pop music, almost all of the bands that electrified the experimental underground of the earliest part of the 70s had either long disbanded or modified their style to suit a more contemporary audience or face complete obscurity in the case of many others. As for CATHERINE RIBEIRO + ALPES, on the band's seventh album PASSIONS, the team started to merge RIBEIRO's solo career as a traditional French chanson performer with the experimental psychedelic rock and avant-folk of its earlier years that managed to continue right up to 1977's "Le Temp De L'autre." But the times were a-changin' as they say and even this eclectic group succumbed to the pressures of infusing its heady politically charged music with more pop friendly hooks.

A remarkable shift in direction was coupled by yet another substantial lineup change. RIBEIRO was still at the helm delivering her brash vocal bravado with her partner in crime guitarist, composer and self-made instrument inventor Patrice Moullet by her side. Also early organist Patrice Lemoine who rejoined in 1976 was back however a new cast of characters joined the ALPES which included violinist David Rose, bassist / clarinet player Francis Campello and Mirelle Bauer on percussion, vibes, marimba. Also joining in was saxophone player Robin Kenyatta who added some jazzier than usual touches to the ALPES sound. The album featured nine tracks almost all of which were on the shorter side of around four minutes or less with the notable exception of the two tracks "Tous Les Droits Sont Dans La Nature" at over 7 minutes and "L'Oiseau Devant La Porte" which extended past 11.

While the progressive rock and psychedelic features had been seriously tamped down, the band retained enough of their familiarity to keep this album sounding like a natural albeit simplified and more commercial continuation of its classic sound. The biggest surprise will come first with the opening track "Loana Mélodie" sounding more like a RIBEIRO solo effort than anything ALPES would dare venture into however the following "Frères Humains" restores a sense of familiarity with the classic repetitive groove format with RIBEIRO's strong vocal accompaniment with that haze of psychedelic organ electrifying the backdrop. It becomes obvious though that this is a very different album with the third track "Critalpin" which takes on a catchy synth-pop sort of organ run although it is in the context of a more complex compositional approach that turns out to be a classical crossover track with folky clarinet performance and violin jig.

The most traditional of the tracks which was obviously thrown in to appease the longtime fans of the olden days, is the 11-minute "L'Oiseau Devant La Porte" which follows the now classic playbook of a dark mopey procession through the familiarity of those 20-minute plus tracks that ended the albums of the golden years however the bouncy rhythms and the fidgety violin accompaniments that follow follow the updated sound the band is striving to maintain. The track does however feature RIBEIRO's familiar style of bringing her poetic prose into a musical format. Despite the more commercial leanings on the album, the lyrics continue completely in the French language. While the song features that new wave "bounce" it sounds more like the darkened psychedelic efforts of the past although the violin offers a lugubrious weeping touch. The album ends with the orchestrated ballad "Femme Témoin" and the jazzy chanson crossover track "Détournement De Chants" which sounds like RIBEIRO switched out the ALPES for Supertramp!

Certainly a major departure from the experimental progressive uncompromising nature of the band's past but despite the more accessible elements and the merging of RIBEIRO's solo career with the ALPES, PASSIONS is actually a beautifully delivered slice of progressive pop, chanson and psychedelia with remnants of the past. Virtually forgotten in time mostly due to the fact PASSIONS and the band's final release "Le Déboussille" have been out of print since their first pressing, the album has found new life on the complete album box set "Intégrale des albums originaux 1969-1980 - 9 CD" released in 2015. While certainly not the most essential release of the ALPES canon, it nevertheless is a lot better than one would expect given the more commercial leanings proving the band was extremely versatile in how it could navigate a large swath of stylistic approaches, a trait which it had displayed from album to album since the very beginning. While definitely a step down from what came before, the album is still very worthy of checking out and i can't recommend the box set enough.

3.5 rounded down