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Harmonium - Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison CD (album) cover

SI ON AVAIT BESOIN D'UNE CINQUIÈME SAISON

Harmonium

 

Prog Folk

4.35 | 1446 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

froggie471
3 stars Well, I just registered because I was so surprised to find "Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison" reviewed on a progressive rock forum.

I was a teen when this album came out and I lived in QC for most of my life. Harmonium was a folk rock band, typical french canadian style. Nothing to do with Yes, Genesis, ELP, Emerson or even Rush. Now that I live in the States, I think Harmonium was a mix between Grateful Dead and Neil Young. I painted the album cover (double) with a friend of mine on panels near by the highschool library. It was an art project. I was a big Genesis fan (early stuff) but I've never asssociated Harmonium with progressive music. They were a band that had a different style on each of their album. The first album (Harmonium-Harmonium) is the best to my taste. It's really inspiring because of the guitars and melodies. "La cinquième saison" (we made a short name for it...after a while) was mostly appreciated to relax. That was not the album you would play during a party.

I don't mean to say that it's not a good album, not at all! But to "classify" music is sometimes tricky. French Canadians have different roots and a different culture. So I would say that the music was typical rock-folk from the 70's in QC. It's a bit like you can't say Jethro Tull was as "hard rock" as Led Zeppelin. Tull was a lot more acoustic even if Page was great with an acoustic guitar. Just not the same feel.

However, this is a good album. I would believe Harmonium lost a bit their "voice" when they did "L'Heptade". It was almost a mystic album. Lyrics were mostly repetitive poems and personaly, I just can't figure why they had such a shift in their style.

I never thought this album would be mentionned in an anglophone forum. It's indeed an album to discover but their first album is a must.......even if it's still not progressive rock.

Sorry for my bad English :)

froggie471 | 3/5 |

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