JPL, Jean Pierre Louveton is of course no newcomer in the music world and after his work with Nemo and WolfSpring he now "returns" with his twelfth studio album called Post Scriptum. The line up on JPL's new album consists of Florent Ville (drums), Jean Batiste Itier (drums), Stephanie Vouillot (piano), Elise Bourg (vocals) and of course Jean Pierre Louveton (vocals, guitars, bass guitar, virtual instruments, and programming). The new album contains seven new songs and lyrically the entire album is in French, which for me is rather a serious drawback.... Musically speaking JPL has abandoned the neoprog sound as most of the tracks here are definitely a bit rockier, but there are still some seventies classic prog rock elements present. Opening track Solitaire starts off ballad-like and features some lose musical moments, a couple of wah wah sounds and organ elements. Follow up Jekyll is definitely rockier, but also features some jazzy-like musical harmonies, while the third song has obvious commercial art rock sensibilities with pleasing vocal harmonies. Puzzle even features a dark and mysterious guitar riff, followed by almost spoken vocals and some fine guitar work, while Les Fantomes is the "weirdest" song of the album. This mediocre album ends with the title track and that one is an epic song; clocking in at almost eleven minutes this track goes all over the place, groovy, funky, lounge, boogie, you name it, and you got it! The Pink Floyd kind of guitar solo in this song is delightful but most of the time I cannot put my finger on what JPL is trying to achieve here. So, overall, Post Scriptum is an avant-garde album with a regressive sound, where JPL pushes the boundaries of his musical universe off the beaten track, but I am afraid that is not my favourite beaten track indeed. *** Martien Koolen (edited by Dave Smith) Where to buy? |
