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LP
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NOF 013LP
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LP version. Camphor & Copper is Mélissa Laveaux's first genuine album, produced from the base tracks of her self-produced debut. So is it fair to refer to Mélissa's sound as an eclectic mix? Without a doubt, how else could it be described? Born in Montreal in 1985 to immigrant Haitian parents, she grew up in Ottawa, Ontario in a mostly Anglophone community. One of her first challenges then was to integrate herself in her new environment without leaving behind anything cherished from her original Franco-Creole culture. Apart from Elliot Smith's "Needle In The Hay" and Eartha Kitt's "I Want To Be Evil," two masterful reinventions that somehow fix the imaginary boundaries of her musical universe, Copper & Camphor is composed of entirely original pieces which combined, reproduce that impressive and paradoxical mixture of maturity and freshness that characterizes all great songwriters. With this album, all of Mélissa's pent-up creative energy accumulated over years of apprenticeship seems to explode at once, immediately hitting the right note, the minimalist arrangement providing a perfect setting for the poetic impact of the songs' lyrics. And last but not least, there's her voice. It unfurls, majestic yet fragile, profound and sensual, deliciously young and immediately seductive. Almost unconsciously, it seems marked by the ever-present trilingualism that has undoubtedly marked her own life: the rhythmic fluidity of English, the nonchalant syncopation of Creole, and the harmonic sophistication of the French. There is no doubt that this album guarantees the singer's entry into the ranks of the most promising singer-songwriters of our times. Pressed on white vinyl housed in a full-color inner sleeve with an insert. Includes one vinyl-only bonus track.
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