Maison Neuve - Joan (2011)

Maison Neuve are a band who love the guitar, the drums, the organ, the sax, paid jobs, insomnia and Paris. Maison Neuve were brought up on folklore music from places like Rodez, Stockholm, Toulouse or the Landes, while dreaming of Bossa Nova, Calypso and Rock n Roll when at the Père Lachaise. Maison Neuve invoke prophets and great female singers, they feel for sentimental excitement and fantasize about wild life, big cities and true love. Now and then, Maison Neuve drew attention on their songwriting skills, and were therefore considered supporters of a well defined pop, the same once claimed by the Sarah Records team or the Young Marble Giants. In fact, the minimal arrangements and the clarity of the vision, somehow echoing to Leonard Cohen's "Songs of Love and Hate," could have made you believe that their writing was tending towards standard pop. Yet, the remarkable intensity of their live performances soon enough convinced the fans that the purpose was slightly different. When listening to the songs, you may notice traces of post-punk's muse Lizzy Mercier-Descloux, Brasilian muse of tropicalism Nara Leao or The Walkmen's electric crusade. This is not simply because these ones embody musical models for Maison Neuve, it is also because, each in their own way, were tragic heroes and idealists being part of various and changing forms of popular music over the past 50 years. Joan is Maison Neuve's first album benefiting from consistent distribution, following a few DIY projects released by the tiny Sauvage Records. This album enables to measure the expressive strength of the band's songs. The large sample of human emotions presented is only matched by the sobriety of music used to transcribe them. This very contrast is sure enough the most fascinating aspect of the record. Drums are dry, guitars are black and the voice declaims the majestic melodies with the composure and steadiness of an oracle. But underneath this monochromatic environment, stories are being told, stories of going back to the wild, the attraction for huge cities, faith in love as a supreme value and despair linked to the remoteness childhood, stories about nomadism and the mother country. With Maison Neuve, human emotions become similar to these ancient statues: fixed in the stone and devoid of any color, they express all the more so their petrified grandeur.