La Sécurité returns with darker, rockier second album
Montreal's art-punk five-piece just released Bingo!, a fiercer follow-up to their acclaimed 2023 debut, shaped by pandemic roots and relentless touring.
Few Montreal acts are as fun to watch as La Sécurité, and the wait for new music from the five-piece is finally over.
The band—led by vocalist Éliane Viens-Synnott, guitarists Melissa Di Menna and Laurence-Anne Charest-Gagné, bassist Félix Bélisle, and drummer Kenny Smith—is back this month with their sophomore album Bingo!, out June 12 on Mothland.
Formed during the pandemic in 2020 when members couldn't play with their other bands during lockdown, La Sécurité earned fierce comparisons to le Tigre and the B-52s after their acclaimed 2023 debut Stay Safe!. They opened for The Go! Team in the States and landed on the Polaris Prize longlist.
Bingo!'s life began in earnest around October 2024 when the band started writing material. A planned retreat to write fell through due to their hectic touring schedule, so they returned to their jam space, where they spent roughly a week making tunes and cutting demos. "Pretty much everything we jammed became a song," Viens-Synnott says.
For several months, the five members met once or twice a week, refined the songs, watched them evolve, and taped new versions to be fine-tuned later. Recording officially began in May 2025, much of it at engineer René Wilson's studio. Production was handled by Bélisle and Emmanuel Éthier.
Several tracks, like "Ketchup" and "Detour," had circulated a year prior, but "Chill Pill" represents the longest gestation period. Dating back to one of Viens-Synnott's first bands, the song shape-shifted frequently over time—four versions were made before completion.
Bingo! is a logical evolution from its predecessor, some describe as more rock-driven and less bouncy than Stay Safe!, though the band insists there's plenty of dancing to be had, even if the tone feels darker.
One such moment arrives with "Snack City," a bouncy post-punk opener full of food imagery in its lyrics ("Skip the bread bar, it's all just fluff / All that sugar is going to your head"). The music video is a photo dump of the band eating. When asked how hungry they were while writing it, they answer simply: "A little." Most of the food metaphors come with backstories—a constant in Viens-Synnott's songwriting approach, layering meaning beneath surface charm.