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Album Review

Fránçois & The Atlas Mountains
E Volo Love Domino Records

Article written by Ged M - Feb 24, 2012

The palindromic E Volo Love is the debut from Domino’s first French signings (although we’ve come across them before on Fence Records, and seen Fránçois as a touring member of Camera Obscura). Recorded in Fránçois Marry’s hometown of Saintes in south west France, it has a folk-flavoured, slightly diffident indiepop charm. The songs themselves are a mix of styles and sounds, and move from English to French language in a heartbeat. The Afrobeat-inspired ‘Les Plus Beaux’ reflects Francophone Africa with its call and response vocals and twinkling guitar while the melodic ‘Cherchant Des Ponts’ is in the spirit of 60s ye-ye, albeit with a heartbroken edge, and the standout ‘Piscine’ is classic chanson, longing elegaically for the swimming pools of Fránçois’ youth. Meanwhile ‘City Kiss’ is purest Field Mice indiepop, with its trumpet and strings accompaniment and talk of lipstick on windowsills. Closing the album, the excellent ‘Do You Want To Dance’ harks back to their Fence origins, adding African rhythms to its muted late-night folk stylings.

It’s a record than smoulders and slowly releases its charms over several listens, but has an attractive dreamily melancholic quality – think of a Gallic Leonard Cohen co-habiting with Ali Farka Toure.

Links:
http://www.francoisandtheatlasmountains.com/
http://www.dominorecordco.com/artists/frnois--the-atlas-mountains
http://www.myspace.com/francoisinbristol