Unessential Oils – Unessential Oils

Warren Spicer (from Plants and Animals) hits the nail with this new solo project entitled Unessential Oils. 

There’s plenty of Plants and Animals in this offering, especially in the strength of the melodies, their anthemic quality soaring over the whole. But the accompaniment is less rock, less chamber, less both. Unessential Oils doesn’t get carried away, and remains planted throughout in an Easy chill, medium-tempo, just enough to keep you from falling asleep in the bathtub, but not in such a hurry as to destroy the good vibe. Urban music, full Montreal, because there’s definitely something of the metropolis in the relaxed, cool, sexy and switched-on energy. OK, there’s some Montreal in Plants and Animals too, but this is a different state of mind. Maybe more what we need right now? A bit of jazz, folk, pop, soul, all in an unpretentious indie attitude, perfectly felt and natural, relaxed. This on your ears as you wander the streets in the Mile-End, NDG, Downtown, Homa or any other piece of Montreal’s vast puzzle, it does good things in the mind and keeps the bad vibes thrown by current political ambience at bay. 

Beyond that, there’s also, and above all, the catchy, well-delivered Spicer-style melodies, smooth as a big, furry vintage blanket, that you don’t want to part with, like Charlie Brown’s Linus coming of age and fully assuming his clinging to his comforter. He even becomes ultra-cool because of it. Yeah, we dig that. 

Personnel :

Warren C Spicer – vocals, guitar, B3 organ, vibraphone

Christophe Lamarche-Ledoux- keyboards, synth, saxophone, bass clarinet, 

Tommy Crane – Drums and percussion

Martin Ditcham – Percussion

Miska Stein – Bass

Liam Oneil – additional drums and  percussion 

Lex French – Trumpet

Frank La Fountaine – additional synth 

Ariel Engle -vocals

Adele Trottier-Rivard -vocals

Loïc Calatayud -vocals

Sergio d’Isanto -vocals

The album will be out this Friday