Stay Safe! La Sécurité

Immediately poignant, delivered with tone-a-plenty, while boasting a whole lot of punk moxie, Stay Safe! (June 16th, 2023 via Mothland) harnesses the inherent synergy shared by the members of La Sécurité. On this long-player, the collective’s uncanny knack for non-stop melodious influx and inventive disco-tinged new wave arrangements is almost tangible. Percussive flare-ups inducing novel feet patterns, harmonically challenging pockets of mind-boggling prowess, nonchalant melodic particles from a different space-time continuum, as well as elusively deep-delving lyrical probes are but a few tropes made-up in a playful attempt to describe their quirky sound. And though their new imprint achieves sonic extravagance through rather typical instrumentation, the five-piece uses mainstay rock & roll equipment in flatout volatile ways. Production-wise, we are treated with a full-length of subtle postmodern ingeniosity, where music is carefully encapsulated. First, not so gently tickling scarce ribbon microphones, then saturating vintage compressors built from actual tank-scavenged pieces, while finding its way down a dizzying electrical patchwork also known as a broadcast board, before it invades new tech to wreck beautiful havoc. The resulting 38 minutes of subversive pop is quite pleasing, even to unsuspecting eardrums, co-producers Félix Bélisle (also a member of the band) and Samuel Gemme (Corridor, Population II, etc.) striking a balance between brut sounds and wispy tweaks. Sometimes tackling knotty themes such as mental health, lost or the autonomization of women, other times affectionately musing about friendship, video games or even tardiness, La Sécurité’s songs are all about benevolence, caring for eachother in the face of omnipresent danger, and dancing as a means to revolution.