After releasing his 2018 debut Darlène, the Quebecois musician Hubert Lenoir made a name for himself by ruffling a few feathers. The breakout album earned Lenoir icon status in his native Quebec, and was the rare French-language Quebec album to find international acclaim, landing Lenoir in publications like i-D, VICE, SSENSE and FADER who declared him “a pop star in any language,” on late night shows in France, where he also landed on the front page of the national newspaper Le Monde, a spot on the Polaris Prize shortlist (the first French-language record to get the nod in seven years), and even, in a bizarre turn of events, on stage at the Barclay Center opening for The Strokes at their New Years Eve show in 2019. All the while he has been a controversial and in some ways transformative figure in his home province, where his antics and transgressive attitude (his initial rise was in part catalyzed by some improvised nudity during a guest appearance on Quebec’s version of The Voice) have both upset many in the traditional media establishment and made him something of a standard bearer for a new kind of youth identity in Quebec. Now, Lenoir has returned to announce his second album, Musique directe, with a track called “SECRET” that features drums from Mac DeMarco and contributions from Kirin J Callinan and is premiering today as part of an interview with FADER.
WATCH: the video for Hubert Lenoir’s “SECRET” on THE FADER
READ: an English translation of the “SECRET” lyrics HERE
WATCH: album trailer “uber lenoir, c’est confirmé” HERE
Lenoir’s rapid rise around the release of his debut album resulted in some blowback, particularly in Quebec where he’s become quite a controversial figure, and his new album is in part an attempt to portray the strangeness of his life over the last few years and the way his sudden notoriety has affected him, particularly with regards to the way the backlash he has faced has given rise to a recurrence of some of the feelings he had as an ostracized adolescent in the suburbs of Quebec City. On “SECRET,” which arrives with a video in which he assumes the role of a skunk trying to win the favor of a popular boy in his high school, Lenoir takes these feelings on directly, with a chorus in which he sends his condolences to everyone who is different like him.
“This is a song about the feeling of unshared love and being rejected when you know that it’s only because you’re different,” Lenoir explains. “It talks about social rejection and keeping those feelings for yourself because “what’s the point” and anyway you don’t stand a chance. Not necessarily feeling bitterness or blaming the others but still finding the situation extremely sad and sending condolences to everyone that is like me, everyone that could live with the same ostracization in silence. A way of saying: I’m sorry, it won’t be easy.”
Keep your mind open.
[Why not subscribe while you’re here?]
[Thanks to Tom at Hive Mind PR.]
