Lylac - I'm the Stranger

Each time it pulls the stunt on me. I play the album, then I don’t necessarily pay attention, I attend to my business. Everything goes by well and it’s nice. When suddenly a song makes me prick up my ears, pick my head up and abruptly give up any other activity: "Sisters of Mercy". It’s automatic. And unexplainable. There’s something gut-wrenching in this magnificent melody. Which you should listen with your eyes closed.
Another track stands out too: "My Bird". Indeed it deals with a new version of a track which originally appeared on his 2nd album Living by the Rules We're Making (2015) – whereas I'm the Stranger is his 4th album already!

Lylac is the solo project of Belgian Amaury Massion, who I adored in the duo My TVis Dead, author of 2 very good pop-rock albums in 2009 and 2013.
With Lylac – named from Nina Simone’s "Lilac Wine" –, he became significantly milder, in a style I’d call pop-folk. A solo of electric guitar is here seen as an exception ("We Need to Change").
Perfect English accent (he once lived in England), melancholy, nostalgia, bittersweet atmospheres ("I Want You Tonight") but always positive-minded... Lylac has a lot in common with his compatriot Tamino, except the oriental side.

Just like the sleeve, the album is connected to nature. Not from a botanic angle, but from an artistic angle.
His program? “Live like birds”, “sing songs”, with a "Rebel Heart". Yet quiet, he appeals to "Dreamers" of all stripes, feels the winds changing and would even change the world ("We Need to Change") and get rid of those “fake plastic trees”... Well well, reference to Radiohead?

Since all the same I have to criticise, I’d regret the abundance of the violin. Or rather the way it’s used, often a bit too syrupy.

Despite that, I don’t know, I love this guy whose voice, whose attitude, whose face, whose look reminds me of a childhood friend and the singer career he could have done (maybe) if had wanted it.
Listening to Lylac I think back on it. He’s the stranger, he says? Not for me, no. On the contrary, he sounds strangely familiar, he ‘talks’ to me. This phenomenon is precious. And each time it pulls the stunt on me.