Allez

Description

More than the baguette and the beret, the way some French musicians recycle the great Anglo-Saxon influences since the mid-60s is typically our own. Like so many before them, Kaolin from Montluçon believes that the specifically distilled spleen/indie/intellectual pop from the English (and a handful of Americans) struggling to live and succeed through the front door for the past fifteen years is worth amalgamating, digesting, and then serving again in the language of Molière. Like the Westerners or Zézé Mago before them, this band, which has fully understood the calculated arpeggios of Muse or Radiohead, shines with its ability to build a universe based on the career and merit of illustrious predecessors.
But unlike the two mentioned above, Kaolin forgets that since it is French, the lyrics are of paramount importance. And so, even if Histoire de dire, Laisse, or Sous ce pli are initially appealing (despite a haunting sweetness that can be detrimental if one does not listen to the record at the right time of day), it is regrettable that the lyrics of their songs indulge in a characterized languor, a near-immobility of time in suspension.
A radical alternative to the neo-metal scene, Kaolin paints with a fine brush pretty sepia backgrounds that a rain of reverberated harmonies and repeated vocal rises gently but surely wash away (Les Nageuses and their hidden track at the end of thirteen minutes...).