There’s a glamourous, chaotic cinematic quality to Hubert Lenoir’s PICTURA DE IPSE: Musique direct that leaves the listener dancing into both a metaphorical and literal journey into Lenoir’s own introspect.
From the celebrated single, “SECRET,” the exploration of one’s deepest thoughts moves the listener through Lenoir’s hardest truths with a smoothness reminiscent of anything out of the classic R&B songbook. At the same time, “QUATRE-QUARTS” evokes a devious satisfaction in being sinful through a perfect mixture of glam and disco before segwaying into the dark thoughts invoked by the mediocrity of life in “DIMANCHE SOIR.” Meanwhile, tracks such as “paris transit,” ‘MTL STYLE LIBRE,” “VILLE-MARIEa”/”VILLE-MARIEb,” and “BOI” bring the listener along as Lenoir invites us from Paris to Quebec as he gives commentary on his experiences as a queer, Francophone artist trying to understand life.
With the bizarre and lively PICTURA DE IPSE: Music direct, Quebec’s Hubert Lenoir is now two for two with Polaris Music Prize Short List albums (with his first being 2018’s debut masterpiece, Darlène). Will this second effort be the key to Hubert Lenoir’s assent into Polaris history? Find out on September 19 by tuning to CBC Gem, CBC Music’s Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter pages, and globally at cbcmusic.ca/polaris at 8:00 p.m. ET. to learn the winner of the 2022 Polaris Music Price live from Toronto’s Carlu. General admission tickets to the gala are on sale right now via Ticketmaster.