ENCORE 1983-1987 (vinyl)

Description

"I perfectly remember the day I discovered the catchy single "Toutes les nuits" on Europe 1, on Maneval's show. I immediately grabbed my tape recorder to record a snippet, which I listened to on repeat until I got my hands on the album 'Àbride abattue' from New Rose. This album was absolutely everything I liked. Brilliant, urgent, and well-crafted compositions. Subtle and mischievous lyrics, a Spector-esque lo-fi sound like in the sixties, with angelic voices and plenty of harmonies. On the cover, a girl group of students in tight skirts, ponytails, and heels, performing their tracks with an air of nonchalance. Odile and Isabelle on guitar, Caroline on bass, and Mike on drums. A succession of undeniable hits: "Toutes les nuits," "Malhabile," "Le supermarché," "Nicolas," the moving "Behind Your Sunglasses," but also perfect covers: "Teach Me How To Shimmy," "With A Boy Like You," "The Kids Are Alright," "You Can't Sit Down." Nothing but gems. The carefree charm and innocence of this wonderful album lit up the beginning of my eighties. And I still listen to it." --- Étienne Daho ---. Would it do justice to Les Calamités to finally put an end to that embarrassing collection of words, 'girl group,' which sticks to them and their pleated skirts? This perfumed cloud prevents them from being simply appreciated for their true worth as a 'group,' period, and from reflecting on their astonishing and brief trajectory. In just a few months of touring stages, with a handful of original songs recorded here and there, they became the darlings of a demanding scene of uncompromising rockers, from Dijon to Rouen, from Paris to Toulouse, from Bordeaux to Strasbourg. Tolerated perhaps, inducted too, if need be. Their currency was original and fast-paced verses and choruses, for which the adjectives 'fresh' and 'light' seemed to be reinvented. There were also, in equal measure, some covers, which gave an idea of the roots of their songwriting, namely one foot in the 50s (on the dance floor), the other in the sixties (in the garage). Right up to their successful final incursion into the top sales with a popular hit that everyone, from seaside campsites to the trendy crowds of the capital, could hum with ease. Everything Les Calamités touched with class, rigor, nonchalance, and a necessary amused distance, turned to gold. No mysteries, so few dramas, the band shot like a meteor and left little time for their audience to realize the importance of these miniature anthems with three voices, in a style combining arrogant innocence and insolent ease. Playing none of the cards automatically assigned to girls (sexy attitudes, feminist clichés, dilettante groupism...), they synthesized a teenage pop spirit with uninhibited rock'n'roll energy. Too myopic to recognize it, too jealous to admit it, a little misogynistic too to write it on all magazine covers, the local music press preferred to keep this little secret warm until today, evoking the same images about them, on repeat: good friends, big sisters, nice cousins, and blah blah blah. But Les Calamités had both this slight delay – a certain 50s-60s classicism – and this small advantage over others: their songwriting talent and their words in French. It was easy to understand, however. But when the country realized it, it's true, they had already disappeared. They were no longer there. They were elsewhere. What remains of Les Calamités in 2021? About fifteen recordings, already reissued twenty years ago (on the Last Call label, affiliated with the parent company New Rose), about ten television appearances floating here and there on video platforms, a complete but now disconnected fan site (Calamiteux), and then texts from amateur historians and critics who desperately re-serve the same biographical note, like endlessly recounting the same well-framed story: the super nice girl group that announced... What did they announce, by the way? We don't really know, Les Calamités remaining a kind of anomaly, geographical, temporal, and mental: they claimed nothing, expected nothing from anyone, and above all they had fun, in a kind of completely assumed clear-sighted amateurism that happily broke the glass ceilings they encountered. Without apparent effort, Les Calamités deeply touched those who crossed their path with this natural talent for writing a handful of good songs that have become classics. And that's not given to everyone.