Lisa LeBlanc - Chiac Disco (YELLOW VINYL) - VINYL LP

Double vinyl LP pressing. 2015 from indie outfit. Men Amongst Mountains is an album about growth. It is appropriate, then, that the band set out to challenge itself while writing and recording the album. The Revivalists cloistered themselves within the intimate confines of Bogalusa, LA's Studio in the Country (finishing touches were added closer to home at New Orleans' Esplanade and Living Room Studios) for nearly two weeks while recording Men Amongst Mountains, taking advantage of the studio's generous acoustics by setting up in a single room and recording to tape in an effort to induce a more performance-based sensibility. The result is an album which, while not entirely devoid of overdubbing and production, leans first and foremost on capturing authentic moments in warm, rich tones and with a distinctly raw, old-world feel. Mirroring the broader themes which connect the individual songs on the album, the recording and instrumentation on Men Amongst Mountains represents the next step in The Revivalists' ever-evolving depth and maturity. Like the band's vaunted live shows, Men Amongst Mountains can and will turn on a dime. The gentle gives way to the heavy, the acoustic to the orchestral. Despair becomes hope. Fire becomes light. At times, the obstacles and troubles in our lives can make the world seem impossibly, hopelessly big. Men Amongst Mountains, ultimately, is about the journey that makes us greater than the mountains standing in our way.

Produced by Benoît Morier and Lisa LeBlanc, Chiac Disco is a collaborative and vibrant album with a sometimes sixties, sometimes seventies feel, staging the improbable encounter between disco and chiac; where glamour meets rurality. With it's eye-popping strings, it's precise beats filled with soul and the bursts of trumpets and trombones, the whole album breathes joie de vivre, but still provides some clever reflections on modern society. A spontaneous response to a bleak 2020, Chiac Disco reflects the passion that a group of musicians can share when creating in total freedom, putting aside guilty pleasures. Packed with all kinds of musical glitter and colorful lyrics sung loud and proud, this is a groovy record above which hover the benevolent ghosts of Lee Hazlewood and William Onyeabor, while also being inspired by the musical chops of James Brown and the sparkling allure of Chic.

Lisa LeBlanc's first album, including the breakthrough hit Aujourd'hui, ma vie c'est d'la marde.