LA DÉBOUSSOLE

The last album for CATHERINE RIBEIRO + ALPES found the band succumb to the pressures that psychedelic and progressive artists of the previous decade had been falling victim to for the latter half of the decades that being abandoning long experimental tracks in favor of snappy and catchier pop hooks. The band's final album LA DÉBOUSSOLE which literally translates into English as "Discomfiture" which means frustration, disappointment, lack of ease and the most damaging "D" word of all: defeat. The band literally stamped their frustration on this final album which basically found RIBEIRO's solo career of chanson and funky grooves mostly replacing the wild and uncompromising progressive rock and psychedelia that the band staunchly retained until the previous album "Passions."

While "Passions" was already heading into shorter more accessible songs, the album still retained enough of the band's classic style to be recognizable. On LA DÉBOUSSOLE most traces of the past had been abandoned for funky bass grooves and a simple percussive backing however keyboardist Patrice Lemoine still managed to sneak in a few trippy organ runs and heady atmospheric effects. Once again the band underwent a final lineup change with RIBEIRO and Patrice Moullet welcoming violinist René Werneer and drummer Pierre Gasquet to the team however bassist Francis Campello stuck around for this final chapter of ALPES where he unleashed his most serious funk chops. Despite the simplified poppier song structures, RIBEIRO delivers her usual vocal bravado with her poetic depth still finding its way into the mix however once again everything is delivered in the French language.

Despite the shorter tracks, the band did manage to include the 11 minute "L'Oiseau Devant La Porte" which most resembles the band's former glory with the more familiar song structures that graced the previous albums but even here the funky bass is the dominant force which ends up sounding like a clash of two distinct worlds, namely the pop chanson solo career that RIBEIRO had launched in 1977 with her debut solo release "Le Blues de Piaf" which clashed with the experimental progressive rock and psychedelic folk sounds that ALPES had crafted throughout the 1970s. Likewise the album ends with an updated new version of "Paix" in the form of "Paix 1980" which incorporates the funky bass grooves and modern commercial flavors to the track that appeared on the album that is the band's best known and most popular. The rest of the tracks are all focused on a quick delivery system however RIBEIRO's vocal style that displays an emotional depth beyond the average singer sounds a little stilted in these simplified tracks.

While it may be tempting to hate this album for its reckless abandon of the band's classic sound, it's actually not a bad album at all showcasing the band adapting to the times as best they can although it certainly is the weakest album in the entire RIBEIRO + ALPES canon for sure but like many progressive acts, ALPES displayed a knack for adapting their classic style to the brave new world of funk and disco without sounding ridiculous. This is by far the most forgotten album in the entire ALPES catalogue and has pretty much been out of print since its original pressing however it has found new life on the excellent box set "Intégrale des albums originaux 1969-1980 - 9 CD" which features every album from 1969's "Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis" all the way to this final effort LA DÉBOUSSOLE. Personally i find these prog artists gone pop albums to be fascinating as it creates a bizarre tension and a touch of surreality that no artist would've ever conjured up left to their own forces. The end of the line for ALPES as the band would call it quits in 1981 while RIBEIRO herself continue her solo career singing classic French chanson. R.I.P. ALPES and in 2024 R.I.P CATHERINE. A true legend of the French underground.

3.5 rounded down