The last album from the Repentigny-based group, featuring the voice of soloist Karl Tremblay, who passed away a year ago, Pub royal contains five songs that form the soundtrack to the musical of the same name, which was a great success in 2024, in Quebec as well as in Belgium and France. It combines theater, music and acrobatics thanks to a collaboration with the troupe Les 7 doigts de la main. The musical will be back in additional runs in 2025, winning Félix awards for script of the year and stage direction and set design last November.
If the lyrics by Jean-François Pauzé, the band’s lyricist (Félix 2024 award in the songwriter of the year category) and guitarist, are as firmly rooted in Quebecois roots as ever, he outdoes himself (over 7 minutes!) with La Fin du show (Félix for song of the year), written as an artistic testament to his acolyte and friend.
This poignant track was recorded just one month before Karl’s great flight, on November 15, 2023, the same day as the Parti Québécois’ first victory in 1976.
What do we do now? asks one of the tracks on the album.And the answer is… instrumental. That’s as far as we get on Merci ben! a festive song pure Cowboys Fringants, which, by recounting the ups and downs of touring life, sounds like the end of the road for the band, but hints at a certain future, with the voice of violinist and Karl’s widow, Marie-Annick Lépine, contributing her own verse. In any case, beyond Beau Dommage and Harmonium, the band that was supposed to be just a big joke has become the one that, in my observer’s opinion, has left the biggest mark on Quebec’s collective unconscious.
