French Lyric Prog Recommendations - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Though it's already been mentioned, I must remark that Harmonium are great, specially Si On Avait besoine d'une Cinquiem Saison. Then there's also Alcest, which I don't remember having seen mentioned (Ecaille des Lunes is the one I know). And there's a strange album from Therion, whom are swedish and usually sing in english (and some other languages), but they released an album of only French covers from the 60's and 70's, making a rather strange mix in paper, buth which sounds brilliant, with that very french sound mixed with metal and operatic vocals and choirs, as well as some orchestrations (in the end, just the Therion sound).

Sean Trane wrote:

Of course, no one will be able to do better in terms of quality lyrics sung in french than Le Grand Jacques (Brel), but Bertrand Cantat of Noir Désir is probably the best (by a margin) in the rock realm, far above Téléphone and Trust (both late 70's & early 80's punk)

in the prog realm, Harmonium has to be on the top rung.

But Catherine Ribeiro + alpes is also right up there, though you have to have a very leftist/anarchist affinity to dig the texts.

Of those I know or am aware of their above average lyrics in French:

Ange (I'm being kind here, but they could be VERY sharp at times)

Atoll (dito)

Et Cetera

Plat Du Jour

Ripaille

E Booz

CANO

Opus 5

I'm not that big on many Québécois bands' lyrics, but I would say that Octobre and Offenbach (to a lesser extent) are above the pack

From French-speaking Belgium, I'd tend to point out AmAndA

Hi Sean,

I looking for a song by AmAndA with a German line "Was ist das? Die Glocke!", do you know

on which album I can find this one?

All the best,

TheH

Of course, no one will be able to do better in terms of quality lyrics sung in french than Le Grand Jacques (Brel), but Bertrand Cantat of Noir Désir is probably the best (by a margin) in the rock realm, far above Téléphone and Trust (both late 70's & early 80's punk)

in the prog realm, Harmonium has to be on the top rung.

But Catherine Ribeiro + alpes is also right up there, though you have to have a very leftist/anarchist affinity to dig the texts.

Of those I know or am aware of their above average lyrics in French:

Ange (I'm being kind here, but they could be VERY sharp at times)

Atoll (dito)

Et Cetera

Plat Du Jour

Ripaille

E Booz

CANO

Opus 5

I'm not that big on many Québécois bands' lyrics, but I would say that Octobre and Offenbach (to a lesser extent) are above the pack

From French-speaking Belgium, I'd tend to point out AmAndA

Edited by Sean Trane - December 08 2018 at 13:39

^Nice one

Thanks everyone for the great recommendations! This should keep me busy for awhile Thumbs Up

Some comments:

1) I do have the Pollen album and really like it.

2) I have a couple Stereolab albums and really dig them too...especially Emporer Tomato Ketchup.

3) Not really heavy into prog folk. I have 1 Gryphon and some Dead Can Dance albums, and of course Tull - though I always thought their classification as prog folk was odd and only based on SFTW/HH. I'd call them eclectic myself...but whatever. I tried the highly recommended First Utterance and it didn't click, but I'll give Malicorne & Motis a try.

4) I'll have to try anything that includes the "Micksatisfaction" guarantee LOL

Mutiny in Jonestown : Progressive Rock Since 1987

How about Trocarn from Switzerland?

Edited by TheH - December 02 2018 at 08:16

The.Crimson.King wrote:

Hi all,

I'm looking to expand my French lyric prog collection and am wondering if anyone could recommend some bands I don't already know about. Since I've used the PA database search function for "France" over the years to find many of these, I'm thinking there may be some Quebec bands that sing in French that I likely don't know about. Anyway, here's the French lyric bands I already have explored:

...

From Canada?

CANO (Au Nord the Notre Vie). I think they were from Ontario ...

I was also thinking that if you ever expanded beyond just "French", France had more than one active language and that things like Alan Stivell, really should be mentioned here, were it not that we're so in love with the imagery that ... that ... that ... (I dislike the cardboard images!) .... and these mixes are sometimes tough on the ear, but they are original and sung in English, Celtic and sometimes French. And many times way more "progressive" than we would care to look at, since it has a knack for mixing many different flavors of music, from rock, to jazz to symphonic. And that is something that "prog" or "progressive" does not really do, except have a "sound" ... that supposedly makes it X, or Y, or Z.

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com

One French lp ive had for years is one called 'Le Voyageur immobile' by Bahamas.. its more in the 'Art rock'/ 10cc vein with some symphonic elements.. I thought I was going to stick it on Ebay but played it again and really rather liked it

Image result for bahamas le voyageur immobile

Edited by Cosmiclawnmower - December 02 2018 at 07:17

Seven Reizh, when you're in for a package deal that also includes Brezhoneg, English, Taqbilit and maybe a bit of German.

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