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Topic ClosedWhy are Harmonium's 2&3rd album better?
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Why are Harmonium's 2&3rd album better?
    Posted: March 02 2007 at 23:53
In my experience, quebecers & Acadians generally seem to have the 1st album in their collections or "remembrances" more than than the next two. Heptade comes next, but it's like comparing, I don't know - Pink FLoyd's Dark Side with Wish you were here ( no disrespect meant, I prefer WYWH).
Is it that the tetes-carrees don't get the lyrical aspect - if all you understand is the music, the lyrical aspect is diminished ??????
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Points: 143 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2007 at 00:36
Maybe it's exactly what you said in the other thread--that the music of the first is more folk-oriented, so in the the world of non-francophone prog fans that most PA members belong to the 2nd and 3rd are more popular.  To take an example from the proto/prog-related lounge, our collective choice in Led Zeppelin albums is for the "proggiest" album and not that best-loved by the general public; it would make sense that our choice in Harmonium albums is for those that sound the most prog.

I own only the second album, so I can't judge the relative "progginess" of Harmonium's work; I'm just basing this on what others have said.  I noticed that the first album is available on amazon.ca for $9.99; the others are more expensive.  This would seem to indicate that the first is more popular.

To the extent that I understand them (I'm "fluent" in French by my university's standards but not really fluent at all), I think the lyrics to the second album are lovely.  Do you think those on the first are better?  I very much want to hear the first album, but since it's rather expensive as an import I think I'll wait until I'm in Canada. 
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Points: 12288 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2007 at 00:43
I own all 3 H's studio albums and I dare to say that the lyrics in their 1st album are fine too. My French is also so-so, high school level, but I can read it quite easily due to the Latin affinities with Portuguese.
 
I think that the lyrics in their 3rd album are a bit dramatic, sometimes dark and obscure. "L'Heptade" was an album hard to 'get in' me but once I was caught I delivered my soul entirely. Smile
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Points: 1930 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2007 at 01:03
I like all 4 of their albums a lot. The debut is better than L'Heptade for me, but not quite on the level as En Tournee and Les Cinq Saisons. But all are good and worth getting.
"The rock and roll business is pretty absurd, but the world of serious music is much worse." - Zappa
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Points: 392 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2007 at 11:08
In the beggining, they were three guys. After that, they were five, and, finaly, they were seven. We can suppose that the new members they had added a progressive touch to the band. There is also the fact that Les Cinq Saisons and L'Heptade are concept albums, which also added a progressive touch to the album. These albums are not better, but as a progressive fan, I think it's normal for you to prefer the most progressive albums.

Edited by proglil49 - March 03 2007 at 11:09
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Points: 4888 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2007 at 14:10
Just because, obviously, the ywere richer in terms of composition and arrangement, a factor that is oddly overlooked by the average prog fan. Such as me... LOL
 
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Points: 4088 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2007 at 14:14
If you didn't know, the members of Harmonium (Heptade lineup) recorded another album... in1978, under the name Fiori-Séguin.  Serge Fiori being Harmonium's lead singer co wrote with Québec folk-rocker Richard Séguin and were accompanied by the entire Harmonium lineup.  A bit more rocking than their previous albums, you have to check it out.  The album's name is 'Deux Cents Nuits à l'heure' (translated : Two Hundred Nights per hour).
 
Mandatory listening for all you Harmonium fans !
"One likes to believe in the freedom of Music" - Neil Peart, The Spirit of Radio
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Points: 11746 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 03 2007 at 14:53
Originally posted by Melomaniac Melomaniac wrote:

If you didn't know, the members of Harmonium (Heptade lineup) recorded another album... in1978, under the name Fiori-Séguin.  Serge Fiori being Harmonium's lead singer co wrote with Québec folk-rocker Richard Séguin and were accompanied by the entire Harmonium lineup.  A bit more rocking than their previous albums, you have to check it out.  The album's name is 'Deux Cents Nuits à l'heure' (translated : Two Hundred Nights per hour).
 
Mandatory listening for all you Harmonium fans !


I agree totally. Thumbs%20Up

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Points: 19636 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 05 2007 at 04:59
I never thought of Harmonium's debut being lesser than the next two, especially not lyrically. The title track, Pour Un Instant, Vieilles Courroies and Attends Moi are absolute stunners lyrically speaking. I love the naiveté and the idealism of the texts. They made ideal campfire songs that were the soundtrack of my teenage years. How many girls we shagged by singing those songs....Embarrassed
 
Only De La Chambre Au Salon is weaker (bleaker actually because  it deals with hard drugs addiction) and the bonus track 100 000 Raisons is expandable.
 
Originally posted by Bern Bern wrote:

Originally posted by Melomaniac Melomaniac wrote:

If you didn't know, the members of Harmonium (Heptade lineup) recorded another album... in1978, under the name Fiori-Séguin.  Serge Fiori being Harmonium's lead singer co wrote with Québec folk-rocker Richard Séguin and were accompanied by the entire Harmonium lineup.  A bit more rocking than their previous albums, you have to check it out.  The album's name is 'Deux Cents Nuits à l'heure' (translated : Two Hundred Nights per hour).
 
Mandatory listening for all you Harmonium fans !


I agree totally. Thumbs%20Up
 
This concept record is still good , but I do not find the magic of Heptade. More song oriented to.
let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
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