CENTRE-VILLE

It took Canadian record companies a bit longer than their US and UK counterparts to start putting the squeeze on their artists to get them producing more radio-friendly commercial music. However, by the early 1980s this had become the norm, and one can clearly hear the influence on this album. This album is more highly produced, with shorter songs and more of an 80s sound, with perhaps the best example (ie worst song, for me intolerable) the track which closes the album - "Suel au Centre-Ville". However, even the better songs on this album have just enough of this slicker sound to make me not want to listen to it very often. There are some decent songs on this though. I actually like the opener with the reggae-related beat ("Tu Ouvres La Porte"), and even though more AOR in style, the second and third songs ("Je Deviens Fou" and "Aller-Retour") are still fairly musical. The best song is the second-last track, "Je Savais Pas", which would fit in on their earlier albums, although it does not come close to the best songs on those albums. So, there are four decent songs here, making the album worth picking up by (true) fans for these tracks. But the rest are just OK, and I can no longer sit through the whole album. On balance, I give this 4.6 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to 2 PA stars.