The CLUAS Archive: 1998 - 2011

Entries for 'Aidan Curran'

27
Thanks to everyone who e-mailed and posted with their views on what should and shouldn’t make our annual run-down of la hexagone’s top tunes. (Don’t forget to check out the CLUAS 2007 album poll results)
 
Regular readers will know that your blogger isn’t fond of most French rock, chanson française, Libertines-worshipping ‘babyrockers’ or superstar DJs. So, just because we’re not into Deportivo, Luke, Kaolin, Renan Luce, Rose, Daphné, Stuck In The Sound, BB Brunes, Naast, David Guetta, Bob Sinclar (no second ‘i’, remember) or Martin Solveig, that shouldn’t stop you from checking them out and making up your own mind.
 
So, what did we like from the vintage of deux mille sept? Here are our albums and songs of the French music year. If our selection is light on French-language works, this reflects the international ambitions of the best and most musically-ambitious French acts, rather than any pro-English bias on our part. On y va!
 
Albums: While last year produced a half-dozen fantastic albums that have the look of classic status about them, 2007’s crop of long-players are more modest in their achievements. Still, here are ten we liked very much…
 
A wildly ambitious and playfully imaginative mix of chanson française (the good kind), indie rock, cabaret pop and even a bit of rap. Sixty minutes of gripping tunes. A dark, romantic tale that conjures up a Tim Burton-esque nightmare world. Veteran French actor Jean Rochefort singing about Don Quixote, who he was to play in Terry Gilliam’s disastrous Cervantes project (chronicled in the ‘Lost In La Mancha’ documentary). Our favourite French chanteuse, the marvellous Emily Loizeau, prominent among the guest singers. But most of all, a record that features Le Roi himself, Eric Cantona. How could we not love it?
 
You didn’t need to be a Francophile to have heard and loved this one. The heirs to Daft Punk and the latest in a long tradition of French electronica duos, Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspar Auge brought to the dancefloor a heavy metal attitude, squelchy beats and distorted synthesisers. Apart from when they have children singing pop melodies, that is. For some reason, not many vampires bought this album.
 
Under the influence of Joy Division, The Buzzcocks and Siouxsie And The Banshees, cold and robotic punk with haughty Parisian sang-froid that’s awesome live. In particular, ‘The A.B.C Of L.O.V.E.’ is great fun and ‘Je Suis French’ is the sound of a French supermodel looking down at a scruffy peasant. And as for ‘Body Addict’, scroll down to see just how much we loved THAT song…
 
She qualifies for France’s top music prize, so the Israeli-born Dutch citizen (an established figure on the French scene) makes our list too. A lovely collection of lo-fi folk-pop that draws heavily on Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed, it’s the quiet and introspective cousin of Feist’s ‘The Reminder’.
 
The late friends of this Clermont-Ferrand boy-girl duo obviously include Nick Drake and Elliott Smith, whose lovelorn folk-pop (shot through with dark hints of violence and sadness) echoes through this excellent debut album.
 
The glamorous French girls, first featured in our 2006 article on new Paris bands, released a debut album of catchy punk-pop and derriere-kicking attitude – which they needed, to cope with the setbacks they endured. The male, middle-aged French rock media dismissed them as ‘babyrockers’ and savaged them for the heinous crime of not being male and middle-aged. Their drummer and her replacement both left the band, and heavy promotion didn’t translate into big sales. Let’s hope they get the success they deserve in 2008.
 
France’s biggest international star, the right-on Che Guevara of world music, was a bit too enthusiastic about recycling his past glories – rock riffs from his Mano Negra days, the police siren from his Amadou and Mariam production job. That said, an average Manu Chao album is still better than most people’s best.
 
2007 was the year of Tecktonik™, but the Paris electro-breakdancing scene produced little in the way of decent music. The exception was Julie Budet’s dayglo disco-pop - fizzy, colourful and fun.
 
Driving, earnest indie-guitarness that some French music fans dismissively call ‘la pop anglaise’. Feck ‘em – this Grenoble trio are great, despite the occasional blandness of their English-language lyrics.
 
US-based Melanie Valera is a mere ‘de’ away from achieving instant fame in Ireland. She’ll just have to rely on her idiosyncratic and likeable electro-folk-pop instead.
 
(We also liked: MC Solaar ‘Chapitre 7’, French Cowboy ‘Baby Face Nelson Was A French Cowboy’, Vanessa Paradis ‘Divinidylle’, Bo ‘Koma Stadium’)
 
NOT Album Of The Year: Air ‘Pocket Symphony’
“Insipid, boring and shockingly formulaic”, the CLUAS review called the latest Air anti-climax. All the more disappointing because their 2006 side-projects (Charlotte Gainsbourg, Darkel) had been excellent. And did you read their knuckle-dragging views on female politicians? Even Playboy magazine found them sexist.
 
Roll Of Honour ~ Albums
2006: Emily Loizeau ‘L’Autre Bout Du Monde’
2005: Camille ‘Le Fil’
 
 
Songs: Sadly, in 2007 we didn’t dig up any earworms as insidious and burrowing as last year’s laureate (‘Bagatelle’ by Vanessa And The O’s). And nothing stood out as prominently as last year’s top tunes. But there were plenty of fine pop songs to choose from.
 
Lead singer Sue intones like a robotic Siouxsie (who now lives in south-west France and speaks excellent French) over cold, clinical punk-pop. What it lacks in originality, it makes up for in being absolutely bloody brilliant. The best song (and they have plenty of crackers) by perhaps the most enjoyable band in France.
 
France’s summer number one: a smashing ‘80s-style disco-pop hit from a former TV talent show winner who looks like Jarvis Cocker and sings like Michael Jackson – a volatile combination. Does he stage-rush his own shows?
 
On their shoulder is the paternal guiding hand of Elliott Smith’s ghost; this charming folk-pop single should earn Cocoon some deserved international airplay.
 
Squally T-Rex+AC/DC glam rocking. An androgynous, helium-voiced singer. Feather boas, spandex and lashings of make-up… Fancy are the Jonathan Rhys-Meyers of rock. In truth, we wish all bands would look and sound like this.
 
It may have lost a little of its freshness after hearing it for the millionth time, but there’s still something strangely affecting about a children’s chorus singing “The way you move is a mystery”.
 
Three randy French lads whose electro-flavoured alt-pop sounds fantastic but goes overboard on tedious adolescent lyrics (plenty of f*cks and c*nts and sluts and bitches) that befit their band’s name, and quickly becomes annoying. However, ‘Starlett Johannson’ was different – thoughtful, romantic and charming.
 
The sort of heartfelt, widescreen indie epic that fans of a much-missed Limerick band called Woodstar will recognise. They sound great in concert too.
 
What threatens to be mere Lou/VU-worshipping (spoken-word verses, droning guitars) is transformed by well-placed handclaps and a sweet chorus. Lovely stuff.
 
Stripped-down Super Furry Animals-style indie oddness which packs a marvellous chorus. We found this Toulouse-born singer-songer (real name Jean-Francois Mouliet) on the bill with Simple Kid at a memorable Fête de la Musique show in Paris.
 
10. Vanessa Paradis ‘Dès Que J’Te Vois’
For her big return to music in September, actress/model Madame Depp drafted in French rocker M to write an album’s worth of fine radio-friendly guitar-pop, the pick of which was this sexy, slinky airplay hit.
 
(We also liked: Rhesus ‘Hey Darling’, Plastiscines ‘Loser’, The Love Bandits ‘She Loves Sex’, Dionysos ‘L’Homme Sans Trucage’, Constance Verluca 'Les Trois Copains')
 
So the rumours were true – he was having follow-up problems after all. A disappointingly flat and charmless comeback single of auto-pilot beats and unimaginative synth swooshes. New album ‘Sexuality’, due out in February, would want to be a lot better.
 
Roll Of Honour ~ Songs
2006: Vanessa And The O’s ‘Bagatelle’

Here's the video for our favourite French song of 2007 - 'Body Addict' by Pravda:


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22

A typical French babyAs befits our contraceptual nom de blog, your Paris correspondent doesn’t have any offspring. No children’s laughter rings round the hallowed halls of Chateau French Letter – and that suits us fine.

By contrast, many people of our acquaintance are hard at work on the baby-production assembly line, so much so that you’d think the future of the human race depended on it.

Christmas is, of course, a time for children – in particular, hysterical mass consumption of aggressively-marketed toys to placate the young heir/heiress (who never buys YOU anything!) on Christmas morning. But what to buy the small person in your life? If you’re a French parent, it may well be a CD.

Children are a lucrative demographic for French record companies – and not just for Christmas. All year round the French Top 40 singles and album charts has five or six records aimed at the Gallic toddler (by comparison, there are rarely any indie singles in the singles charts here, unlike in the UK or Ireland). High street record shops like FNAC devote plenty of floor-space to children’s records.

Pigloo, the punk penguinAnd French public libraries, with their large and diverse music collections, have children’s sections which are as big as (and maybe bigger than) the world music, blues, dance and metal sections.

So what are French children listening to? Well, colourful cartoon characters sing and dance to songs about holidays – at the beach in summer, on the ski-slopes in winter – and la rentree (the back-to-school period in September) and anything else that may attract young Zinedine (4 years old) and Segolene (5 and three-quarters).

That said, we found it surreal that a cartoon penguin called Pigloo (left) had a hit with a cover of Belgian punk rocker Plastic Bertrand’s 1978 hit ‘Ca Plane Pour Moi’. French pre-schoolers are listening to punk – how cool is that? Pigloo’s many competitors will have to go some way to top that.

Ilona Mitrecey, the cartoon versionThe most popular but most peculiar of these children’s cartoon pop stars, a Dora The Explorer-esque little girl singing catchy songs about jungle animals and faraway places, has the strangely un-cartoon name of Ilona Mitrecey (right). This is because she’s a real, flesh-and-blood girl of that name. The young mademoiselle Mitrecey, in her early teens, sings the songs on record but the artwork and videos feature a cartoon version of her. Then, on live television, the real Ilona sings the songs.

The problem is that the real Ilona is quite a shy, ordinary, uncharismatic performer with none of the ‘look-at-me’ stage-school preening of most child stars – which makes her an anti-climax onstage compared to her colourful cartoon persona. And she’s a good 6 years older than her target audience, uncomfortably too grown-up for the songs she’s singing. We fear that long years of therapy - or a rebellious raunchy makeover - lie in store for Ilona.

Anyway, for the festive season, here's Pigloo's Christmas product, 'Le Noel De Pigloo'. Joyeux Noel!


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17

Mon Dieu! The big news story in France today is the revelation of President Sarkozy's new partner - model/singer Carla Bruni. The pair were officially photographed together during an official visit to Disneyland Paris. Bruni happens to bear a strong resemblance to Sarkozy's ex-wife Cecilia, who divorced him shortly after he was elected President.

Carla Bruni and President SarkozyApart from the showbiz gossip aspect, the story is causing strong reactions here because it means that Bruni has, de facto, associated herself with the ruling right-wing conservative class. Sarko is either loved or loathed in France - and artists who come out in favour of him tend to be pitching to the white moneyed classes.

There are two types of Sarko-fans among France's showbiz community. On the one hand, you have long-time stars like Johnny Hallyday whose demographic is the traditional middle-aged provincial Frenchperson. On the other there's the new breed of superstar DJs like Martin Solveig and David Guetta, both of whom played fundraising shows for Sarkozy's UMP party during his presidential campaign. Low-taxation policies attract the Parisian bling-bling, nouveau-riche lifestyle that Guetta embodies.

Unlike in today's apathetic Ireland, France's young people tend to be openly political, and an artist's political views have serious repercussions for his/her sales. A rapper who supports Sarko (as some old-school has-beens like Doc Gyneco have done) instantly blows his street-cred. Bruni, whose two albums of poetic acoustic ballads would have appealed to the left-leaning bobo (bourgeois bohemian) Paris liberal, may just have scuttled her audience. But then again, if she marries the President of France she's hardly going to need to make another album.

As for your blogger, definitely not enamoured with Sarko, he just has to grit his teeth and stand by the favourable review he gave to Bruni's first album, 'Quelqu'un M'a Dit', back in 2004. Here's the title track, which is impossible to listen to now without the mental picture of her whispering it in the ear of her little Sarko:


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13

Christmas, a time for religious celebration, gluttonous overeating and overdrinking, frenzied spending, domestic rows. And, best of all, best-of lists. Remember to vote in the CLUAS polls for Best Album (domestic league) and Best Album (Champions League).

What's more, like in 2005 and 2006, your Paris correspondent will propose the Best French Music of the year: our regular readers may like to browse through our archives and let us know what should be in our final ten, which we'll post in the last week of the year.

CocoonA late charge for BFM-of-07 comes from Cocoon (left), a boy-girl duo whose charming acoustic pop has clearly been profoundly influenced by that of Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens and especially Elliott Smith.

And if that wasn't recommendation enough, they've only gone and called their debut album 'All My Friends Died In A Plane Crash' and released it on Sober & Gentle Records. This we must listen to!

And oh! it's acoustic pop to make you swoon. Pick of the bunch is a song called 'On My Way' - a melodic, lovelorn, happy-go-lucky ballad that's been touched by the spirit of 'XO'-era Elliott Smith. In other words, wonderful stuff.

The Cocoon pair - Marc Daumail and Morgane Imbeaud - are currently touring around France and Belgium and plan to spend April recording in Nashville. No news of any Irish dates or release yet, but with such excellent English-language songs it's surely just a matter of time.

Check out those charming tunes on Cocoon's MySpace page. Here's the video for 'On My Way' - as if the song wasn't adorable enough, the video features a cartoon panda:


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09

 Music fans from the pre-Britpop/grunge days (late '80s to early '90s) may remember 'Rapido', the quirky and innovative Anglo-French TV show hosted by comedy Frenchman Antoine de Caunes (and scripted by legendary rock journalist Nick Kent, resident in Paris).

We have all the time in the world: My Bloody ValentineAnyway, from the archives of 'Rapido' here's a topical interview with Kevin Shields, now back in the spotlight following the recent announcement of a reformed My Bloody Valentine tour.

The MBV leader is here talking up ‘Loveless’ in 1991 and explaining how it took all of THREE YEARS to make! Little did we suspect that this was Shields at flat-out working pace.

Things to note: (1) Kev’s Dublin accent, thus settling for ever the old MBV-Irish-or-not argument, and (2) his hyperactive mile-a-minute personality, which he clearly brings to MBV productivity.

My Bloody Valentine will play concerts in London, Manchester and Glasgow in June 2008, with reports of a US tour to follow. No Irish date has been announced as yet. Shields has spoken of a new MBV album to be released imminently, but at the time of writing no details have been confirmed.


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07

While Dublin's indie and metal teenagers mooch and sulk around Temple Bar and its Music Centre (aka The Button Factory), their Parisian dance-music counterparts are outside the Centre Pompidou and being far more active. The plaza outside the famous art gallery is a hot-spot for Tecktonik, the breakdance-meets-techno dance style that's the talk of the Paris club scene.

The Tecktonik style started as long ago as 2000, in a Paris nightclub called Metropolis. But it's only this year that it began to have an impact on the public consciousness - the annual Paris Techno Parade this September marks the start of serious media attention on the movement. TV news programmes have begun to report on the craze - which probably means that it's about to become seriously uncool.

Tecktonik dancers have their own distinctive look - heavily-gelled futuristic haircuts matched with skinny-fit jeans and T-shirts. The robotic dance moves add to the cutting-edge visual impression of the style; advertising agencies in France and beyond are finding Tecktonik irresistible.

Now more and more clubs are putting on Tecktonik nights, a business which is not as straightforward as it sounds. Many such nights are being stopped with injunctions - not by the police or local authorities, as with raves, but by the Metropolis nightclub, who are the owners of Tecktonik.

Yes, Tecktonik is a registered trademark, the first dance to be copyrighted. No other club can advertise a Tecktonik night, as this would legally infringe on the Metropolis' trademark. Some clubs are bypassing this by holding 'Danse Electro' nights instead.

A range of Tecktonik merchandise is available, bearing the symbol of an eagle (left). This symbol, though, has only served to add even more controversy - many people feel that the Tecktonik eagle resembles that used in Nazi imagery.

You can check out some Tecktonik moves in the video for 'A Cause Des Garçons" by Yelle, a current hit in French nightclubs:


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05

A review of the album 'Situation' by Buck 65

Review Snapshot: The tenth album by the Canadian rapper, Feist's occasional dancing partner, is an unremarkable collection of same-old-same-old beats coupled with dense social-commentary influenced by 1950s seediness. By no means a bad album, but it will only excite that small Venn diagram segment where 'Public Enemy fan' overlaps with 'James Ellroy fan'.

The Cluas Verdict? 5 out of 10

Full Review:
Situation by Buck 65Not to be confused with Buckcherry, Buck Owens or Eiffel 65, Buck 65 is one of the many aliases of Canadian rapper Ricardo Terfry. If you're not well up on your Canadian rap, you may have seen him dancing romantically with Feist in the video for her breakthrough single 'One Evening'.

'Situation', Terfry's tenth album in twelve years as Buck 65, is a concept album about 1957 - according to a post by Terfry on his MySpace page, "the year that created a legacy that affects the way we live and think fifty years later". So, we have a track called '1957', with others whose words evoke the spirit of James Ellroy's sleazy paparazzi ('Shutterbuggin') and crooked policemen ('Cop Shades'), as well as Betty Page's underground starlet ('Lipstick').

Buck 65 has previously laced his rap with folk and blues sounds, but from start to finish 'Situation' is just old-school socially-conscious hip-hop. 'Old school' means that there's nothing really new or innovative about the sounds on offer here; the beats and instrumentation are fairly run-of-the-mill stuff. You're left listening to 'Situation' purely on the strength of Terfry's rapping - but his deep voice has little personality or variation. He's obviously put a lot into the lyrics in order to create his '50s demi-monde, but that's not enough to sustain interest for a whole album.

Fans of literate, thoughtful rap may like it - but they'll still find that the likes of Jurassic 5 and The Roots do this sort of thing far better.

Aidan Curran

 To buy a new or (very reasonably priced) 2nd hand copy of this album on Amazon just click here.


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02

John Carney's 'Once' was released in France on 14 November - and it has enjoyed reasonable success.

The French poster for 'Once'With only 54 copies distributed (compared to 364 for 'American Gangster', released on the same day), the low-budget Irish film has attracted an impressive 47,343 cinema-goers in its first two weeks, putting it at no. 20 in the French box office chart (American Gangster, third in the table behind Saw IV, has almost 730,000 punters).

French reviewers have been quite positive too. The general consensus is along the lines of 'the songs and the charm make up for its faults'. Widely-read cultural weekly Telerama's opinion was typical: its review emphasised the key role of the 'glum rock' songs in the storytelling, and praised Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for their performances.

Your blogger saw 'Once' in a Paris arthouse cinema this weekend. The film certainly has its charms, most of all Hansard as the likeable hero (we were about to write 'likeable busker', but that'd be going too far with the suspension of disbelief). But Irglova's part was seriously underwritten; her lines were not so much dialogue as stage directions ("I have to go now" umpteen times) and plot markers, with no sense of her character having any emotional depth or development. Perhaps Carney, maker of the brilliant 'Bachelors Walk', just can't write a convincing female role; there was Marcella Plunkett being the dreamy two-dimensional love interest, just like in the TV series.

And the songs aren't really good enough to win over Frames-doubters the way they do in the film; bland, generic love-and-angst lyrics delivered in Hansard's trademark quiet-to-loud style. But his melodies - especially 'Falling Slowly' - are strong and memorable, like the best of his songs. The more adventurous James Blunt fan may be swayed by them, though we know that's damning Hansard and Irglova with faint praise.

We were curious as to how French people would react to 'Once'. Street buskers aren't so common here - most musical begging is done on the metro (though there's a regular pitch at one corner of Place Saint Michel). And would not knowing The Frames be a help or a hindrance?

Well, we gained one telling insight thanks to a certain French audience reaction. Early in the film, just before the girl appears, the guy is singing 'Say It To Me Now'. At the moment that Hansard launches into the song's histrionic section, some people in the cinema started laughing - they clearly found him ridiculous and thought it was meant as a joke. But the laughter died away when the French viewers realised that the busker's OTT performance was to be taken seriously.

Apart from the cultural shock of experiencing a real Grafton Street busker (though not singing 'Hallelujah'), here are some other Things That French People Learned About Dublin Thanks To 'Once':

  • No one in Dublin (except rich studio engineers) owns a mobile phone. All calls must be made from public phones just off Grafton Street.
  • It's normal to go to the shop at night in your pyjamas. You won't be mugged or arrested.
  • Dublin thieves are perfectly nice once you've caught them and shown them your compassionate side. But watch out for that second door out of HMV!
  • Young Dubliners don't go to the pub; they organise sing-songs at home where everyone eats plain spaghetti and listens to someone's ma* singing come-all-ye rebel ballads.
  • Immigrants to Dublin have no worries except for neighbours barging in to watch 'Fair City'.
  • It doesn't rain in Dublin.

As for your blogger, three years out of Dublin, it seems that Mountjoy Square is going to become the new Stoneybatter. But are there more buskers there now because of 'Once'? We think we'll be staying in Paris a while longer...

(*Mrs Hansard, we believe)


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01

November was a bumper month for Irish acts playing in Paris, and the trend looks set to continue into December.

The ThrillsTonight (1 December) The Thrills (right) are playing in the Maroquinerie, one of our favourite indie venues here. The Brian Wilson worshippers are currently on a European tour in support of their latest album, 'Teenager'.

Next stop for the lads is Amsterdam, followed by Germany, Spain and Scandinavia, all in the next two weeks. Let's hope Conor Deasy's voice can hold up under that busy schedule.

Those madcap Cork boys The Frank And Walters (below left) are playing two Paris shows this week. First, they're at La Flèche d'Or (this blogger's home from home) tomorrow night (2 December), and they'll also be at the Club Le Baron on the swanky Avenue Marceau just off the Champs-Elysées on Tuesday 4 December.

The Frank And WaltersThat leaves them all of Monday free for a bit of sightseeing. Oh, and some promoting business; their last album 'A Renewed Interest In Happiness' was released in Europe earlier this year.

After their Paris shows, The Frank And Walters will be touring around Ireland during December to play for you their new single 'City Lights' and their fine back-catalogue of colourful guitar-pop.

The Frank And Walters gig tomorrow night is part of a fantastic line-up at La Flèche d'Or this week. Last night we saw The Posies there: guitarist Ken Stringfellow now lives in Paris, and last night he and singer Jon Auer put on a stripped-down, guitars-only show of the band's power-pop classics. They played 'Flavor Of The Month'; it made our weekend.

Then on Monday there'll be a mad dash from the day-job to see more cult indie-pop, this time from Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips of Galaxie 500 and Luna fame. Support comes from much-fancied French singer Bo.

In his role as CLUAS Foreign Correspondent (Paris), your blogger will have a gig review of the Frank And Walters show as soon as possible. As a nod to the non-striking transport workers of France, perhaps they might play 'Happy Busman':


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30

So how's that tent in the Phoenix Park going? Still there, not blown away yet? We shouldn't joke - that seems to be what's happening to the crumbledown RDS these days, from what we've heard of the recent Kings Of Leon show there.

Anyway, if you're going to see Justice on Saturday night, you might want to break the habit of a lifetime and show up early to catch the support act.

I wanna be ado: French band The TeenagersThe Teenagers (right)are a three-piece from Paris, now based in London, who make electro-flavoured punk-pop. They aren't in their teens any more, and they might be getting a call sometime from legal representatives for the estate of '50s boy-crooner Frankie Lymon.

They write English-language lyrics that are sometimes spoken-word and usually heavy on immature randiness (sample lyric: "On day two I f*cked her and it was wild / She's such a slut" - 'Homecoming'). And 'Sunset Beach' is a touching tale of the singer's broken heart: "This f*cking b*tch deserves to die". But hey, they're called The Teenagers for a reason.

Their juvenile lyrics and monotone delivery can get a bit tedious after a while (e.g. a few seconds). So how come we're recommending that you sacrifice your pre-gig pint and head up early to the Park to catch them?

Well, their single 'Starlett Johansson' is fantastic. It leaves out all the sex-obsessed blather of their other tracks and just concentrates on being a ferociously lean and catchy little song. The three lads even sound sincere and charming: "I'm scared by spiders too / I never manage to blame you."

In fact, it's so good that it makes us look kindly on their faults. After all, their lyrics are nothing that you won't already have overheard on the bus or in your local. Also, we suspect that the three lads are being tongue-in-cheek (their cheek and the cheeks of others) - from your blogger's experience, swearing in English with a French accent is the stereotype of a Paris nightclub poser.

And the equivalent of c*nt in French, 'con', isn't as taboo as the English word, so perhaps they know not what they do.

Anyway, you only have to listen to them, not hang out with them or invite them to the family dinner. You can make up your own mind about The Teenagers on Saturday night - don't say we didn't warn you about the filthy lyrics. Here's the video for 'Starlett Johansson', where the lads reveal their sensitive, romantic side... oh look, there's, like, a NAKED LADY (tee hee!) in the video!!!


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Nuggets from our archive

2005Michael Jackson: demon or demonised? Or both?, written by Aidan Curran. Four years on this is still a great read, especially in the light of his recent death. Indeed the day after Michael Jackson died the CLUAS website saw an immediate surge of traffic as thousands visited CLUAS.com to read this very article.