Octobre - Survivance. 1975 Canada

Survivance is the 3rd album from Quebec's Octobre. In a nutshell, Survivance takes in both the previous two albums and finds itself at the crossroads of progressive rock and pop music, while ditching the folk rock tendencies of the past. Somewhat like a Quebecois Supertramp, lead by strong keyboard work, excellent lead guitars, and fine vocals in French. The wordless female vocals recall Contraction (which makes sense given they are provided by Christiane Robichaud) and the overall style points to Morse Code's mid 70's work. The two instrumental tracks that open each side highlight this middle-tier work. The pop songs need more substance to take Survivance to the next level, and the fact it's a short album, there just isn't enough time to make a good case. On the high side of good, but it's still just good.

No reissues exist as I update this post. It doesn't need one by itself, but would be great if there were a) some archival tracks similar to the instrumental Contraction type numbers or b) they pair this up with the first 2 albums.