APRÈS LA CHUTE

Chrysalide’s first album suffers from some of the things that make its second album a bit tepid at times, but these traits are more apparent here. I suppose the band reflected on this album some and made obvious improvements in the one that followed it, but here the lack of instrumental range is a bit too noticeable to ignore. The lack of drums means that the incessantly strumming acoustic guitar and non- descript bass keep most of the tracks from being of much interest musically. Like their other album I have a tough time distinguishing this from post-rock, especially when the electric guitar half-hearted drones take over. There’s a bit of cello spattered around, but there is no real sense of purpose to it.

The overall point of the record seems to be to provide the setting for a three-record historical anthology of sorts that the band is fashioning their releases into. The middle part of the trilogy is still under development so it will be interesting to see if the whole body of work gels somehow into something comprehensive when that one is released.

Here again the theme of the music is lost on all but French-speaking listeners, but from the song titles its clear at least some of the tracks have biblical or vaguely religious overtones. There are more vocals here than the band’s other album, and while on the one hand this helps mask the instrumental sparseness it also further separates the premise of the lyrics from non-native speaking listeners.

There really aren’t any standout tracks here, and frankly I can’t say this is much more than a two star effort. There’s nothing about the music that is bad, just nothing worth going out of your way to spend time absorbing either. Of the band’s two available albums I would recommend ‘La Chute’ for those who want to give the band a try (and you can do so without much cost except your time since both albums can be downloaded right from the band’s web site). This one is probably for fans only.

peace