The latest single release from Julien Bouchard brings out a refreshing and breezy feel that blends classic rock with folk and has a very welcoming and warm aesthetic to it.
"Fond d’écran" features lush acoustics with smooth and soothing style vocals that are layered to bring depth to the track and throughout its unfolding you fall into this sort of beautiful atmosphere that it provides.
You can tell that this is a song that means something to Julien. The performance itself showcases how he can create this kind of atmosphere by layering instruments and vocals so that you have a track that wraps itself around you.
To me, this track was very peaceful. It was calming and it even invoked certain memories of my own to pop into my head. There's something about it that feels like it's recalling the past and I picked up on that simply from the music Alone.
In English, to track means wallpaper. And to the artist, it can represent a distance from someone you love, or the birth of a new relationship.
So, you can see the sentiment is there and that's where the warmth in the music comes in as well.
Those two elements go hand in hand and really feel good when you listen to them.
One of the things I love most about this track are the backing vocals because they are treated almost like instruments themselves creating a deeper back end and even more of a silky sort of flow and expansiveness beneath the surface.
I love the guitar work here because that is what gives it that classic rock approach. When I say classic rock, I mean bendy, soulful guitar playing on an electric guitar which really came through powerfully on this track and mended the song like glue.
It was beautiful all the way through and something that has a way of sticking with you long after it has ended.
Some of that vast undertone also comes from the effects used on some of the vocals like reverb for example, which gives that depth and distance also represented in the sentiment of the song once again.
The track has a wonderful way of building an intensity as well. As it gets towards the end of the track the drumming gets a little heavier and harder and the entire song becomes more full-bodied and even lusher, so you have a soiree of beautiful sounds and textures coming at you from all angles.
Songs like this are cinematic because they hold some emotional value to them and the performance vocally is something that adds to that cinematic backbone and warmth as a whole.
This is a song you can fall right into and float right alongside. It's got a graceful approach and along with this single comes a great music video that helps represent the sentiment of the song visually.
This was a well-thought-out music video and works perfectly for the song itself.
It's also sort of addicting to watch.
For me, this is one of the best ways to listen to the song for the first time but, I also suggest you do it a few more times with headphones on.
Being able to take in all of these layers is a beautiful thing and Julien provides loads of these with this track alone.
This is one of those songs that makes you think. It's more in-depth than you first understand and the deeper into the song you get the more of that sentiment comes through and with the music video, it hits perfectly.
The track provides such a wonderful blend of folk, classic rock, and of course, plenty of indie-pop giving it all a bit of color and loads of personality which is probably the most important aspect of the song.
Check this track out as soon as you can, and we've posted the music video below for you to do that easily.
Don't forget where you heard it first.
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