You get older, you have a family, and you start to slow
down—that’s how things are supposed to go, right? Not for Montreal
band Corridor, who have returned on their fourth album Mimi with a
sound and style that’s more widescreen and expansive than anything
that’s preceded it. The follow-up to 2019’s Junior is a huge step
forward for the band, as the members themselves have undergone the
type of personal changes that accompany the passage of time; even as
these eight songs reflect a newfound and contemplative maturity,
however, Corridor are branching out more than ever with music that’s
richly detailed, resulting in a record that feels like a fresh break
for a band that’s already established themselves as
forward-thinkers. Mimi immediately recalls the best of the best when
it comes to indie rock—Deerhunter’s silvery atmospherics
immediately come to mind, as well as the spiky effervescence of
classic post-punk—but despite these easy comparisons, Corridor
remain impossible to pin down from song to song, which makes Mimi all
the more thrilling as a listen. The road to this point, as roads to
greatness often are, was not without challenge; if the elastic guitar
rock of Junior came together quickly—or, as guitarist and vocalist
Jonathan Robert describes the process, “in a rush”—then the
steady-as-they-go creative pace of Mimi marked a desire to break from
the “exhausting” work ethic that previously birthed Junior. “The
goal was to work differently, which is the goal we have every time we
work on a new album—to build something in a new way,” Robert
explains. “This time, we took our time.” And so in the summer of
2020, Corridor’s members—Robert, vocalist/bassist Dominic
Berthiaume, drummer Julien Bakvis, and multi-instrumentalist Samuel
Gougoux—holed away in a cottage to engage in the sort of creative
experimentation that would lead to Mimi’s ultimate creation. We went
there to write, and a lot of ideas came from that retreat,”
Berthiaume explains. “We didn’t end up with songs as much as we
did ideas, so the result is a collage of the ideas.” After that
productive session together, Corridor continued to tinker with the
songs’ raw parts digitally and remotely over the next few years,
with co-producer Joojoo Ashworth (Dummy, Automatic) lending their own
specific talents in the theoretical booth. The process was a byproduct
of not having access to their previous rehearsal space as the COVID-19
pandemic faded from public view, but also a result of the four piece
leaning harder into incorporating electronic textures than on previous
records. “For a long time, we identified as a guitar-oriented band,
and the goal of making this whole record was trying to get away from
that,” Berthiaume states while admitting that the band encountered
their own challenges as a result: “We had to figure out how to make
new songs without having the chance to play together. It was
complicated sometimes.” Berthiaume also describes Mimi—which, fun
fact, is also named after Jonathan’s cat—as a record about
“getting older” and “figuring out new parts of life”—but
despite any claims of transitional growing pains from the band, Mimi
is a record bursting with new energy and life, a vibrance that’s
owed in no small part to Gougoux joining the band full-time after
pitching in on live performances in the past. “I come more from a
background of electronic music, so it was nice to involve that with
the band more,” he explains, and Mimi contains a distinct rhythmic
pulse reminiscent of classic era-post-punk’s own melding of dance
and rock textures. Over bright, chiming guitars and ascending synths,
Robert addresses his looming mortality on “Mourir Demain”: “I
wrote it when my girlfriend and I were shopping for life insurance,”
he laughs. With our little daughter growing up, we also considered
making our will. I said to myself, ‘Oh shit, from now on I’m
slowly starting to plan my death.” “Jump Cut” is pure
psychedelic bliss, with hypnotic ziggurats of guitar lines aligning
themselves in the distance as Robert and Berthiaume’s vocals
excitingly duck and weave throughout the lovely chaos created;
meanwhile, the nocturnal air of “Caméra” provides perfect cover
for ruminations on self-promotion and exposure in the digital age,
while the hypnotic haze of “Mon Argent” tackles the realities of
making a living while making music. “Nothing is more abstract,
insecure, and random than a musician’s income,” Jonathan muses
while discussing the song’s thematic bent. “The responsibilities
piling up in my adult life have, unfortunately, prevented me from
continuing to avoid the subject. We end up giving a lot of importance
to something we don’t understand.” Don’t mistake this as music
about dead ends, though, as Mimi embraces and champions unfettered
creativity while paving a way for Corridor’s own bright future.
“We just focused on making a record that sounded the way we
wanted,” Gougoux exclaims while discussing the band’s aims.
“There were no limitations when it came to what was possible.”
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10/07/2025 Last update