Nous Non Plus
(Aeronaut)
The French have never had much luck at making rock ‘n' roll. Their language's flowery rhythms roll in nearly direct opposition to rock's more exacting syllables. But pop? That's another story. The gentle eroticism of the Man and a Woman theme made a splash in 1966. Nine years later, a Belgian (close enough; and with a lot of help from Lou Deprijck), stage-named Plastique Bertrand, pumped out the ridiculously catchy "Ca Plane Pour Moi." Guess what: It was pop dressed up as punk rock. Freudian Slip's opener is kind of like that: there's a throbbing, rock-like bass, but "J'en Ai Marre (Had Enough)" is irrepressibly springy. Nous Non Plus, the offspring of Les Sans Culottes, is, basically, a Euro-Pop/Schlock group par excellence.
Nous Non Plus isn't really French. Well, they're mostly not French. Celine Dijon (a name a drag queen would kill for) was raised in Paris - but this won't be a blow-by-member-blow. The band's a faux French concept; a ‘60s, via New Wave/synth-pop, faux French concept. Which is the kind of campy cleverness Warhol might have munched up with a grilled cheese sandwich. I mean, female vocals recalling Francoise Hardy, swirling synths (but not too many), mature pop song-craft, and a male vocalist referencing Yves Montand and Serge Gainsbourg.
A couple of fluffy tracks (I'm on the fence about "All I Want is You," along with the aggressive cuteness of "Bunga Bunga"), keep Freudian Slip from being a continuous player for me. But I'm having trouble removing my ears from a track that deliciously captures late-‘60s pop utopia; "Neil." "Ne Dis Pas/Indian Summer" also indulges itself in lush, ice-clinking romanticism - which is, after all, tres Francaise.
DOWNLOAD: "Neil," "Ne Dis Pas/Indian Summer," "J'en Ai Marre (Had Enough)" MARY LEARY
