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 F\u00e9lix awards for script of the year and stage direction and set design last November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the lyrics by Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Pauz\u00e9, the band’s lyricist (F\u00e9lix 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 (F\u00e9lix for song of the year), written as an artistic testament to his acolyte and friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This poignant track was recorded just one month before Karl’s great flight, on November 15, 2023, the same day as the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois’ first victory in 1976.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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What do we do now? asks one of the tracks on the album.And the answer is\u2026 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 L\u00e9pine, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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