Songs by Warlus
Label: Guerssen

“While Lennon struggled with struggling on that album, Maubert's 'Blue's Man Blues' and 'Blues for a Friend' are the real deal.”

Trying to place Warlus' Songs in the context of the history of rock music is impossible. The album is at least five years behind psychedelica, five years before DIY or die and for an English speaking album in the key of Beatles and Floyd, 250 miles south of Syd Barrett in London and 3600 miles east of John Lennon in New York. It's hard to believe this thing exists, let alone it being a damn good album.

Warlus is a reference to the Beatles "I am the Walrus," though don't ask me why it's spelled wrong. That's the last thing you'll be wondering when you listen to these weird songs echo from your speakers. And yes, it does echo. Every song was recorded over the course of two nights by two guys named Richard Maubert and Pascal Ducourtioux in an empty theatre in Villepreux, France. You can hear the guitars bounce off the walls.

Maubert says on his website, "For my part, I sang, played guitars and bass. We recorded the instruments in pairs. It was epic, because we were not in a real studio but the scene of a large theater with the light switched on continuously. For ambiance, it was magical! Pierrot the governor was located 30 meters above us. It was all done by re-recording two Revox. This was our first recording. We recorded 10 songs in two nights when the theater manager was gone for the weekend skiing."

From start to finish, Songs is catchy without ever trying too hard. The songs are bittersweet love songs with simple builds and simple choruses. The intro asks the listener politely to "Listen to the Warlus." You will immediately think he's blatantly copying John Lennon's singing style the way thousands of bands from the mid 60s to today have, but along the ride you'll change your mind. He sounds like he genuinely loves the music. It's not hero worship. He uses the sound as a platform for his own poetry.

“I advise you to sit along in your room late at night, turn the lights off and put on Warlus' Songs. While you listen, you'll get the same feeling you get when you listen to Daniel Johnston or a Syd Barrett demo.”

The slow building ballad "My Souvenir" is as good as anything from Lennon's chaotic Walls and Bridges of the previous year. While Lennon struggled with struggling on that album, Maubert's "Blue's Man Blues" and "Blues for a Friend" are the real deal. Warlus may want to be the Beatles, but they've got a heart and soul injection most copycats don't have.

I advise you to sit along in your room late at night, turn the lights off and put on Warlus' Songs. While you listen, you'll get the same feeling you get when you listen to Daniel Johnston or a Syd Barrett demo. You'll think, hey, I'm listening to something I should never hear. It's voyeur rock. By the time Maubert starts freaking out at the end of "Blues for a Friend," you'll feel like a ghost hovering above these two odd Frenchman in that theatre way back in 1975.  His vulnerability might even make you uncomfortable. The barriers between song and listener have been destroyed. When you get to "Good Night the Day" and these weird sounds start creeping out of the darkness, you'll feel like you are back at the beginning of psychedelica in 1966, when sonic weirdness in rock was new and genuine.


REVIEWED BY ADAM WISNIESKI
ADAM'S 3 FAVORITE TRACKS: "Giirl Like You" • "My Souvenir" • "Good Night the Day"
Read more by Adam on his blog, Short Wave Rockin


Preview & purchase the album from Anthology Recordings