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Nemo - Revolu$ion CD (album) cover

REVOLU$ION

Nemo

 

Eclectic Prog

3.87 | 339 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

La fraisne
5 stars I'll start this review with a disclaimer: that I have written it after only having listened to Révolusion once, and will likely revise it after I've more perspective. Ironically for an album titled revolution, R?volu$ion (as an aside, I love the kitschy title) seems more of an evolution of Nemo's style than a dramatic change. The album is a little more ambient, or at the very least features more effects than past albums. The transitional track Aux Portes du Paradis is entirely ambient, for example, with fragments of themes playing across one another. This reminds me a little of the title track of Prelude a la ruine, but the difference in how the idea of a two-minute transitional track is dealt with there and how it is dealt with here shows some of the differences between the Nemo of 2004 and the Nemo of 2011. A better integration of the heavy elements of Nemo's sound with the symphonic elements is another noticeable difference.

Révolusion opens with Liberté, Egalité, Insurrection!, a short instrumental track that presents a theme, much like Introduction À La Différence or Les Enfants Rois in Si Pt. II. There is then a sudden transition to Ju Suis Un Objet, the first track proper. This track features an upbeat verse-chorus-verse structure with a space rock-ish instrumental in the middle. The melodies are great here, very catchy. A classic Nemo track.

The next track is the title track. What I've noticed so far is how much more assured the heavy instrumental sections sound here than on previous albums, when they could (at times) sound a little forced, and were normally redeemed by the quality of the ideas. A better job has been done on the production of these sections this time, I feel. The opening and ending sections are especially excellent.

Our next track is the aforementioned Aux Portes du Paradis. The ominous bass on this track particularly struck me. The balance on the whole album has much more weight on the bass. Fragments of themes, including that heard in Liberté, Egalité, Insurrection! play back and forth.

Seul dans la foule comes next. This track features one of the great Nemo melodies I like so much. The length of the track gives time to let this melody breathe, a lot like longer Nemo tracks such as Reflets; it's not so much about contrasting sections. Loins des Yeux styles itself as pts.8-12 of Barbares, the epic off of the last album. It stands pretty much on its own as far as I can tell though. I can't really say very much about this structurally after one listen, but I enjoyed the track a lot, and found once again that the heavy or grandiose elements seemed a lot better integrated into the track and a lot more convincing.

Notes Pour Plus Tarde is the final track, with Guillaume Fontaine-penned lyrics. This is a very upbeat end to the album, with a pretty melody and some lovely guitar work by JPL.

I'm a massive fan of this band. They write precisely the style of prog I enjoy listening to, and this is (although I've only listened to it once) at the very least as good an album as Barbares, although maybe not as good as the Si albums. No dip in quality, thankfully, although certainly Nemo have continued to develop their sound. Long may they continue to do so.

La fraisne | 5/5 |

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