Daniel Lavoie: official website

"Olympia 87" album and concert at the Olympia, September 1987

February 1988

All those who went to hear Daniel Lavoie during his time at the Olympia during the second half of September, certainly took away with them the memory of one of the most beautiful shows of the new season. In the middle of changing scenery, which was simply a work of genius, bringing to mind the white sails of a clipper, prison bars or the deserted roads of a mysterious and disturbing metropolis, was a band flushed with happiness to be on stage flanked by a world class singer with whom, on all counts, they feel great empathy. Because this person radiates a real but hardly believable charm, a perfect chemistry of elegance, kindness, emotion and intelligence, which makes one want to applaud, at every pause, the songs which one likes, as well as those one likes a little less. The sort of show which, the minute the curtain fell after the last curtain-call, was able to release 2000 smiles of joy onto the pavements of the Boulevard des Capucines (where the Olympia is).

An album is released today which tries to re-capture this magic. Daniel Lavoie has changed his label anew from Pathé EMI to WEA. Popular for the most part with the musicians who took part in the sessions for his last album "Vue sur la mer" and handling the electric guitar, the piano and the flute with ease, he offers us a balanced selection from his big successes ("Ils s'aiment", "Je voudrais voir New York" and "Tension Attention") to those songs which passed by almost un-noticed ("Les longs manteaux", music from the film of the same name) and of English titles not issued in France ("Tricky Willy", "Salina" and the fantastic "Old buddies" which introduced the saxophone of André Lambert, giving us great highlights of deep midnight blues right in the middle of the heart of it).

Forsaking pre-programmed electronic equipment in favour of a real drum kit, the rhythms are less dominating than on his last studio albums and this well-spaced music allows the Canadian, at this stage, to remain the inspired melody maker whom we discovered in "Nirvana bleu". Briefly, this is a superb disc with deep feeling: but which catches us a bit unaware because, with one or two exceptions, he favours the gentle way, while the concerts had the tendency to become rather serious.