Short Reviews [Mangeur de Reves - 2023 - "Vivre et Mourir"]

Bands shift and move over time, and that is important, but it is quite unusual for a band to switch quite so much between the debut and second albums, but that is exactly what has happened with Montreal based Mangeur de Reves. If one was to play just the song “Vivre”, then it would be easy to say this album is a direct progression from the debut when they were very much folk-based progressive rock, with heavy emphasis on acoustic guitars, little or no percussion, and a strong emphasis on electric piano combined with wonderful vocals. Here we would be arguing the only real shift was to a different style of keyboards, but when one listens to the rest of the album, we have the strong impression that here is a band who used their debut as a starting off point and are now reaching in a very different direction indeed. It is the exact same line-up as the debut in Alex Cege (lead vocals, guitars), Jean-Philippe Major (bass, vocals), Jici LG (guitars, bass, vocals), Raphael Liberge-Simard (drums & percussion, vocals), and Florent Schmitt (piano, synths, vocals), but even just looking at the artwork allows the listener to know here is a band with a very different mindset indeed. I have no idea how they got permission to take those photos in a church! If they were sent to PA for inclusion now, there is no doubt in my mind they would be in Crossover, yet due to the debut they will long reside in Prog Folk, but while there are elements of folk here and there, we now have a band who have firmly moved into art rock and taken influences from multiple places. There are multiple highlights, but a special mention should be made of the duet which takes place on “15000 Nuits”, with Sabrina R.B guesting alongside Alex in a piece which contains real beauty. Opener “Dieu Soleil” starts as if it is Thompson Twins before the guitar makes an ominous entry, with just the piano attempting to bring in some lightness, this takes us into “Animal” which has a far more jangly approach and a sound reminiscent in the introduction of Crowded House before slowing down into something which sounds much more like modern Marillion yet with clear falsetto. All lyrics are in French, which I have long forgotten (school was such a very long time ago), but I enjoy the way the vocal melodies flow and just treat the words as another instrument. This is not an album I expected from Mangeur de Reves, yet it shows a huge amount of growth and if they have travelled this far since the debut what can we expect from them next?