Malicorne - Balancoire en Feu
Malicorne - Les Cathedrales de l’Industrie
I’ve written about Malicorne pretty extensively in the past, my overview of their Hexagone period is here. My review of their next three albums is in Exposé 13, p. 76. But I’ve never written about what was the band’s final two studio albums, mostly because they’re so far away from where they started that they sound more like the Gabriel Yacoub solo albums than Malicorne.
I actually listened to the last album first, Les Cathedrales. To my ears this is a really unsettling album as it presents a very pop-oriented Malicorne, without strong and accessible songwriting. Even Le Bestiare, the first true studio album where the band starts going electric, doesn’t point in this direction. Wikipedia’s Malicorne page has it about right in quoting “Big Science (1-2-3)” as having a strong Peter Gabriel influence, pop music with a world music tinge, for a while I thought this might have even been a cover. I think the problem with this album is just that it’s so different from the band’s original repertoire, that and it strikes me as being a bit tacky in spots, something I’d never accuse Malicorne of.
Balancoire en Feu is from half a decade earlier and seems a rather weak follow up to Le Bestiare which definitely seems like the band’s best electric album. Of course I remember having trouble with Bestiare at first as well, but grew to love it. At least here, Malicorne still sound like their folky roots are strong, but I’ve never grown particularly comfortable with the material. But none of it sticks in the craw like Cathedrales does.