Lisa Leblanc’s ‘I Love You, I Don’t Love You, I Don’t Know’ is a Trash-Folk Gem
written by Conor Graham
If you don’t know who this Canadian folk rock, trash-folk, banjo-wielding powerhouse is, then consider this your introduction. Lisa Leblanc released the music video for her song, ‘I love you, I Don’t Love You, I Don’t Know’ about a week ago, and this is your first reason to discover the music of Lisa Leblanc.
‘I Love You, I Don’t Love You, I Don’t Know’ comes drastically close to sounding like a country song but it manages to cover some deeper territory than your average country tune, at least sonically. I’m not a huge fan of country, so it’s lucky for me that Leblanc pushes past the basic country repertoire of taking one simple ballad and adding a western twang to it; in this song she adds a little more complexity.
After the second and third chorus, we get some of that complexity with waves of sound that remind me of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game,’ oddly enough. But these slow, bent notes inject a sort of longing into the song that complements the lyrics that express a longing to be somewhere else and running away.
I also really like Lisa Leblanc’s ‘rapid fire’ performance on this song, it’s entrancing in its rhythm.
The dance competition (including line dancing, head-banging, breakdancing and thrash) in the music video does not have a winner, the judges do not hold up score cards, and there is no value judgement on each performance. This lack of judgement seemed to point to the subjective value of art, and I think the point is well made. As a visual accompaniment to Leblanc’s fantastic song, the music video does a great job, it gives the audience some action with the dancer’s interaction with the music, and this interplay between the music and dance makes the song that much more enjoyable.
You can find her new album, ‘Why You Wanna Leave, Runaway Queen?’ HERE:
Check out the video for I Love You, I Don’t Love You, I Don’t Know below
Lisa Leblanc recently won the Singer-Songwriter award at the 2017 Indies and was also nominated at the 2017 JUNO Awards in the Contemporary Roots Album of the Year category, and will be touring this summer- all tour dates can be found on her website HERE.
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written by Conor Graham