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
