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Rating: Like a film set in a villa in the south of France by Rohmer, like the endless summers between one school class and another, like in those suspended times where an unaware smile appears on the face while the sun warms the body and a light breeze lulls the mind... that's almost how Les Très Bien Ensemble entered my eardrums and my life.
Surely you know Belle & Sebastian, and listening to the debut album by the Barcelona-based yet French-speaking LTBE, the Scots will inevitably come to mind. Here though, there is less spleen and more irony. It must be the sun...
It's called "Doux-amer," this easy, danceable, yé-yé, and terribly sixties pop album.
I don't know who decided the tracklist of the CD, but to listen to the first up-tempo track, you need to reach track 5: "Les vacances," a graceful anthem to idleness and youth complete with soft guitar and Hammond organ that so much resemble the soundtrack of a film with Louis De Funès. Moving on, we find a beat tune dedicated to selfless love where the seductive voice of Suzette claims to not care about material things "En attendant Raskolnikov." In "Sous le soleil," the theme of idleness is revisited, nearly embracing its apology while the quartet sounds as if they were Velvet Underground raised in Bahia.
A mention to the single "A Hélène," a minor ballad copy-pasted from the songbook of the "Scottish cousins," where they earnestly and worriedly wish the best possible future to the crying little girl in the title.
A charming yet immature debut album: too many clichés, too catchy, at the same time, however, a straightforward album like has been sought for quite some time around here... a holiday album, yes, but also bittersweet...
To listen to only if you love the two-dimensional and revealing flatness of pop. One last thing: the ironic name of the group comes from the lyrics of "Michelle."
Tracklist
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