RÉUNION

"Reunion" is the only album that documents Garolou live in concert. Recorded in Longueuil in 1994, it also represents the reunion of the band after so many years inactive (their last album before then was "Centre-Ville" in 1982). They do a very good job recreating their most popular songs in concert, and the sound quality is excellent. The song list represents what most consider to be their best pieces, and for the most part I do not disagree (I would have also liked to see "Nicholas" or "Le Condamne" from the third album, but one can't have everything) . It is telling that there are no songs here from their fourth album "Centre-Ville", clearly their weakest album and no one in the audience is requesting those numbers. For the rating, I had to think about this one. As a live greatest hits album, it covers the bases, and with their best songs, excellent sound quality and strong performances, one might rightly expect a 4-star rating. However, my complaint is that they are too faithful to the studio recordings. Some (although not all) of the guitar solos are in fact note-for-note. Yet, I would not say that any of the versions on this live album are better than their studio counterparts, and in fact in every case the studio versions are better (even if just so slightly). So if you like the songs you should pick up the studio albums first. On balance, I give it 7.6 out of 10 on my 10-point scale (which translates to 3 PA stars).