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Flairs is the nom de rock of Lionel Flairs, itself a name which is just too good to not be a pseudonym. Mr Flairs divides his time between London and Paris, making rather deadly electro-pop in both cities. Some Flairs tracks have been doing the web-rounds since last year, and now he’s gathered ten of them into an album that already has us planning for our end-of-year Best French Music list.

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It's happened to the best of us.  You see a friend and you can't wait to tell them about this new band you've just started listening to.  You wax lyrical for what seems like an age only for your friend to shake his/her head and say:  Yeah, they're okay but....I prefer their earlier stuff.  Key Notes has been on both ends of this conversation and while there are times when this particular blogger has said it just to annoy the person on the other end, more often than not it turns out to be true.

Now, before you start, I'm not picking on Kings of Leon because they are an easy target.  There are quite a few Irish bands that will feature in this series.  No, I'm picking on Kings of Leon because they are the most high-profile example of a once exciting band now specialising in generic blandness.  Youth & Young Manhood (and the Holy Roller Novocaine EP upon which it was based) and Aha Shake Heartbreak were, and still are, amongst this blogs favourite ever records.  Their blend of baptist-tinged-garage rock is well showcased on tracks like Molly Chambers, The Bucket and Taper Jean Girl.  It was music that made you sit up and pay attention.  Coupled with the fact that they sported some of the best beards this side of Jesus and Santa Claus, Kings of Leon looked as good as they sounded.

However, as much as Key Notes loved Aha Shake Heartbreak (So much so that this blog also bought a copy for Old Man Key Notes) it contains the song that, in this blogs mind, set Kings of Leon on their path to banality.  Milk is nothing more than an acoustic dirge that would never have been recorded were it not showcasing Caleb Followill's distinctive vocals.  Key Notes is a big fan of these vocals, but there was so much more to Kings of Leon.  Now though, almost everything Kings of Leon produce centres around Caleb's Southern drawl.  Having lots of free time on his hands these days, this blog used some software that it owns to strip all four Kings of Leon albums of their main vocals.  The first two still sounded good but Because of the Times and Only by the Night, without vocals, come across like Liverpool without Gerrard; they just don't offer anything worthwhile.

In promoting Only by the Night the Kings of Leon spoke of being influenced by Crystal Castles, Radiohead and My Morning Jacket but that's not evident when you listen to the record.  Indeed it's difficult to believe that Only by the Night was written with anything other than commercial success in mind.  There's nothing wrong with that and I'm sure the Followill's are very happy with their lot in life.  However, the only way real way to achieve that type of success is by producing bland, inoffensive music.  In that they have succeeded and, if the reception they got at Oxegen last year was anything to go by, the general public wouldn't have it any other way.  Key Notes though, well, he really does prefer their early stuff. 

Speaking of which:

Kings of Leon:  Molly Chambers 

Key Notes also preferred when they had beards and would allow you to embed their official videos!

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We had been worried. Last autumn Phoenix (below right) posted 'Twenty One One Zero', a track from the sessions for their new album, 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix', the follow-up to 2006's brilliant 'It's Never Been Like That'.

The trouble was that we found it disappointing: a three-minute intro of tired electronic loops all building to enormodome-friendly rawk dynamics. It sounded like a photocopy of the opening minute of 'Where The Streets Have No Name', and if we wanted rewrites of old U2 songs we could just go and listen to new U2 songs.

But now Phoenix have just aired the first single of that upcoming album and it's smashing stuff. Yes!

Keeping with the vague number/year theme of that earlier track, the new song is called '1901'. Out go the Eno/Edge-isms: '1901' picks up the alt-pop of 'It's Never Been Like That' and runs with it into electronic beats. All the while, Phoenix keep their unique blend of post-punk attitude and indie romanticism - singer Thomas Mars sounds as lovelorn as ever. 

The track has the familiar Phoenix structure of long, looping verses building to a long, looping chorus. As always with this band's material, there's no catchy hook that would get it on mainstream radio; world domination will have to wait once more. But that's a minor gripe: '1901' is fresh and exciting stuff.

'Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart' will be released on 25 May. Before that, you can download '1901' for free from Phoenix's website or simply have a listen to it on Phoenix's MySpace page. Or, to make it even easier for you, have a listen to it on this home-made video:

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There’s a swell of interest building in Paris music circles about a young piano-playing singer-songer who’s breathing new life into a classic French genre.

Maud Lübeck (right) is the lady in question. A prolific musician and film-maker, she has already recorded two albums under the pseudonym Emma Udé (the French pronunciation of the letters M-A-U-D) and made several short films. Now she’s gaining rave reviews for songs that she has posted on the internet under her own name.

Lübeck plays melancholic piano songs that almost burst with quiet intensity and simmering emotion. Our French and Francophile readers will immediately think of Barbara, the ‘60s icon of dramatic French cabaret pop. She also has a lot in common with the darker parts of Emily Loizeau’s wonderful 2006 album ‘À L’Autre Bout Du Monde’. Like both those ladies, Lübeck has a keen ear for a good tune and is careful not to let her songs get smothered by cheap sentiment – every note and feeling rings true. She’s Maud, not maudlin.

She was caught on radar near the end of last year when she duetted with Vincent Delerm, star of the chanson française scene, on a track called ‘Je T’Aimais Trop’ (“I love you too much”). Your blogger is normally allergic to the bland, tuneless Delerm, but his duet with Lübeck is really very good and if it brings attention to her then so much the better.

Since the start of this year, French music blogs have been buzzing with excitement about Lübeck, and influential magazine Les Inrockuptibles has raved about her. Such is her low profile that no one seems sure if she’s going to release an album; we know that she’s not signed to a record label. 

And just to add to the frenzy around her, Lübeck's upcoming shows in Paris and Lyon are part of a children's charity - and the concerts are for kids only. Already, French music fans are scrambling to find a young niece or nephew who'll gain them admittance to the hottest shows in the country right now.

You can hear those marvellous tunes on Maud Lübeck’s MySpace page. Our favourite is ‘Le Parapluie’ (“the umbrella”), but every track we’ve heard from her has been memorable. Here’s a video she made for one of her older songs, ‘Egg Oeil’:

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Carly Sings (live in La Bellevilloise, Paris)

Review Snapshot: Despite incessant audience noise and diabolical sound problems, which she really should just put aside, Carly Sings pulls out a strong performance of fine material - including some promising new songs.

The Cluas Verdict? 7 out of 10

Full Review:
Tonight’s venue, a trendy music bar in the slightly bohemian 20th district of Paris, is full of lively punters out for a good time. For Carly Sings, this is bad news indeed.

You see, La Bellevilloise is fashionable because its clientele like to hang out here and chat with friends while having live music in the background as sonic wallpaper. By the bar it’s standing room only, as packed and noisy as a Friday evening train station. The disinterested audience din is overwhelming, quite possibly the loudest we’ve ever heard at a concert.

More used to dedicated Dublin listeners, Carly Blackman is up against it tonight. You’d hardly call her loud, confrontational or in-your-face. Even before the show starts she already looks nervous – we reckon she has family and friends in the audience. Added to that, her live set-up (with Ben and Guillaume on guitar and bass/cello) is plagued by technical problems; at some moments the sound seems to have been mixed with a blender. While singing, Blackman glares up at where the back wall meets the ceiling, and you wonder how someone can sing so clearly through gritted teeth. This wouldn’t be a good time to go bothering her about anything.

Between songs, though, she relaxes and tries to make light of the night’s adversity. When she asks the crowd to stop talking, she’s half-joking – but only half-joking.

And yet, despite all this, Carly Sings puts on an enjoyable performance. Those tracks from ‘The Glove Thief’, her debut album, still sound beguiling. The musical mixture of pop, jazz, chanson française and bossa nova is rich and evocative, like a specially-blended tea from far-off lands. And her lyrics feature strong visual imagery that complement the sparse arrangements – in a room where it’s hard to be heard, such directness is all the more necessary and welcome. In particular, ‘George Emerson’ rises above the racket like a hot-air balloon.

One thing: for someone who’s spent a lot of time in Lyon and Paris, Blackman’s French isn’t great tonight. Apart from singing ‘L’Amour’, around halfway she gives up the between-song banter en français and continues in English. But she said she was tired. (Not that this is a language exam or anything. Just saying, like.)

Of more interest than her French level are her new songs. She closes the set with two: the folksy ‘No Good Girl’ and ‘Jason Rising’. Both are up to the high standard of her previous work and that bodes well for the second Carly Sings album, which should hopefully be released in September.

Difficult second album? It can’t be as hard on Blackman as this bloody concert!

Aidan Curran

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From here on in, Short Cuts is going to change tack a little... as well as bringing you the good stuff that bubbles up here in Oz (I see that NME gave Empire of the Sun 8/10 earlier this month... see this earlier blog), I'll be providing a First View on some of the premier releases of the year. 

And what better place to start than U2's new release, No Line on the Horizon.

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