On its fifth album, the first in eight years, the elusive Couleur Dauphin offers us an esoteric talisman for modern times, not without a touch of irony. An album made up of seven earworms that traverse a wide, nostalgic range of sonorities. More rock than experimental, Cadeau Rochiste nonetheless embodies the unabashed exploration and ambiguous humor that have always been the band’s trademark.
Cadeau Rochiste makes the most of its spiritual theme. The retro sound and cassette cover immediately evoke the New Age era and the power stones that fueled it. The tongue-in-cheek lyrics also reinforce this vaguely mystical and luminous aspect, culminating in the passage “Thumbs and index fingers form the heart. Major, ring and little fingers form the pyramid. You’ll know how to find your way and paint the world with your colors”.
Musically, the instrumental ‘Béarn’ is particularly noteworthy, taking us completely elsewhere and into the famous peaceful, introspective zone implied by the theme. This track, like ‘Dauphins pacifistes’ later on, is a key moment where the creativity of the arrangements and mixing shines through. On ‘Dauphins pacifistes’, we enter the realm of a meditation audioguide, with a suave whispered voice and many guitar sound effects. All this is superimposed on great arrangements of flute, synthesizer and percussion. It somehow feels like being at the beach, albeit a multicolored one where an omniscient narrator tries to soothe us from existential anxiety. Elsewhere, we move easily through various rock sub-genres without really knowing where one begins and the other ends: indie, pop, psychedelic, post-punk, new wave, stoner and more.
What we take away from the album are instantly catchy tracks, enigmatic lyrics that stay in mind for a while, and a sense of dealing with a Couleur Dauphin more focused than ever. An independent band on the Montreal scene to keep an eye on.
“Parle-moi de l’extase, des étoiles, du divin, des cristaux, des énergies”.
