Children Of The Slump

Description

The most attentive among you will not have forgotten the name Marble Arch among the ten French artists in the Saint Laurent Paris Sessions photographic series shot in 2015 by Hedi Slimane, the music-loving designer. At the time, between La Femme and Melody's Echo Chamber, Yann Le Razavet was not the most famous face, but the man behind Marble Arch was already a brilliant prospect in the French pop scene. While his first album, The Bloom Of Division (2014), had made an impression, it was for its author/composer/performer primarily an exercise in "bedroom pop," recorded from his native Brittany. So much so, in fact, that he conceived of his recording alias as a personal project, far from any stage aspirations. Named after the white marble London landmark on Oxford Street, Marble Arch meticulously crafted his second album, experiencing fewer artistic torments than economic constraints – hence the title Children Of The Slump (literally "Children of the Crisis"). During this time, Yann Le Razavet pondered the musical direction and sonic options for his new record, not wishing to be pigeonholed as either shoegaze or dream pop. In his case, we'd speak more of reverberated pop ("Reminiscence"), saturated pop (the irresistible single "I'm On My Way"), nostalgic pop ("Moonstruck"), synthetic pop ("Instant Love"), or even contemplative pop ("Gold"). The thirty-something artist, supported by Barthélémy Bouveret (Good Morning TV, Brace! Braceti) for the mixing of the nine tracks, considers Children Of The Slump to be his true first album, unlike the previous record which was a collection of demos. If we were to draw some parallels with Marble Arch's simultaneously haunting and ethereal repertoire, bands like The Radio Dept., Slowdive, The Wake (Sarah Records period), and Deerhunter would spontaneously come to mind for their shared way of conjuring shadowy guitars with pop melodies. During these two years of writing – thus summarized in "Children Of The Slump," the concluding track where the artist goes from laughter to tears – the Lannion native colored his melancholic inclination, much like the roses placed on a grey Mercedes on the pastel album cover.