Noir Désir
Tostaky

THE REVIEW

While Italy is shaken by an album like "Terremoto" by Litfiba, France simultaneously sees at the top of the best-selling albums a work similar both musically and content-wise, "Tostaky" by Noir Désir. Both albums are, in fact, infused with pure, hard, and direct rock, with politicized lyrics, highlighting the worst aspects of their respective societies.

With this album, the best and best-selling of their career, Noir Désir definitively abandon the status of "next big thing" to become one of the most important rock groups France has ever had. Supported at the mixing board by a certain Ted Niceley, a member of Fugazi, the group, Denis Barthe (drums), Serge Teyssot-Gay (guitar), Frédéric Vidalenc (bass), and Bertrand Cantat (vocals, guitar) unleash a series of songs with great impact, traversing different genres and languages, characterized nevertheless by Bertrand's splendid lyrics, surreal and full of wordplay, but always very poetic and never predictable.

We are introduced by "Here It Comes Slowly", a short and direct track, bordering on punk, where at the end Bertrand engages in his ungraceful scream excellently supported by his three companions. The lyrics address fascism. In "Ici Paris", always very direct and hard with beautiful solos, the theme is war, and it even includes a reference to Syd Barrett "a l'amour et a la vie/a Syd Barrett et c'est fini". A change of atmosphere with "Oubliè", a dissonant ballad that tells the story of a love affair gone wrong, where the drums sound almost like a metronome for its obsessive constant beat on the skins. The pace picks up again with "Alice", the story of a girl who "a le don de la metamorphose" or "fait sa nuit dans des villes enchantées/et elle se réveille au matin sur des terres brûlées"; beautiful the musical crescendo at the end. Followed by 2 classics from the group: the first is "One Trip/One Noise", a foray of the group into world music, and the earthquake-inducing title-track, where the group turns up the amplifier volume to the maximum and unleashes a ride of unprecedented violence; in this case, the chorus is sung in Spanish and discusses the war in Latin America.

"Marléne" owes a debt to certain Central European sounds; indeed, the track seems like a military march, enhanced by the harmonica and part of the text sung this time, obviously, in German, "Hier und immer , Da kennt man sie, Kreuz unter Kreuzen Marlene immer liebt". The lyrics, once again antimilitaristic, are inspired by the famous "Lili Marleen". Pure rage is unleashed in "Johnny Colére", a short but intense track, again antimilitaristic, this time against the people who decide wars and the fates of thousands of people "johnny m'a dit, johnny m'a dit/ rejoins tes frères, rejoins tes soeurs/ bois le sang de ton ennemi". The longest song on the album, 6 minutes, is "7 Minutes", greatly indebted to Sonic Youth's noise-rock, given the long feedback solos that characterize it; an over-the-top performance by Bertrand, who uses a very emphatic and powerful tone. The acoustic guitar makes its appearance in the bleak ballad "Sober Song", in which the singer prays to God to make him sober, promising that "I'll drink water till I die". The last sonic assault is "It Spurts", which finds its strength in the singer's interpretation, who this time delights us with a dark, rage-filled vocal register; rage that is unleashed in the middle section, "so come on/stop/I fuck you/shut up/I'll kill you/fuck off/you always drive me crazy". It closes with "Lolite Nie en Bloc", alternating calm verses with violent feedback in the chorus.

An album of great value, capable of providing strong emotions with every listen, despite being 14 years old.

SCORE = 9