French Pop Candies

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Yeah, yeah, I know; two music posts in a row? But, Sean! I thought this was supposed to be a review site for everything!

Well, I've been working on that. Hopefully a few reviews down the pipeline you'll be getting a comprehensive review of an excellent PS2 game, Persona 4. Why not now, you might ask? Well, I haven't finished it yet, and I've decided to make it my policy not to review games, books, movies, and albums that I haven't finished 100% for the sake of credibility.

So, in the meantime, I decided to put up a review of an album that I have, in fact finished: the quirky, weird, and pretty awesome French Pop Candies. It's worth noting here that this isn't a release by one group (there is, to my knowledge, not a band called French Pop Candies currently in existence); Candies is a sampling of music by various French artists.

Actually, I wouldn't have even taken a second glance at this album if it wasn't for the fact that Busy P, an excellent electro house DJ and owner of the record label (Ed Banger) that Justice belongs to, is featured on it. (Justice is too, for that matter, but I didn't even notice until I got to their song and thought, "Hmm. This sounds an awful lot like Justice." Bonus!) That song, Pedrophilia, is just as catchy as the preview made it sound, and, in my view, that and Justice's entry, a remix of ZZT's Lower State of Consciousness, make the purchase worth it alone.

The album isn't all electro house, though. It covers a wide swath of musical genres, if mostly because so many of the songs are... well, frankly, genre-blurring. The songs range from datA's Rapture, a catchy synth-pop number that hearkens back to the eighties, to Miniscule Hey's bizarre accoustic piece, Watch out! The Sillycats!, which is more like children's poetry set to music than anything (I'd link the Youtube video if there was one; you can stream it on their Myspace page), to Yelle's Les Femmes, a sexy, almost jazzy... uh, song. I'm not really even sure how to classify it, except to say that it's one of several of the CD's songs that I never would've found otherwise, but can't stop listening to now.

Unfortunately, the "why can't I stop listening to this" label doesn't apply to every song on the album. Naive New Beaters' Live Good is just sort of annoying (though the music video is awesome), as is Adam Kesher's Local Girl, even if, in the case of the latter, it's mostly due to the vocals. While those are the only two songs that really bother me, there are others that are just plain mediocre.

That said, I still think that French Pop Candies is an excellent sampling of modern French music. Even if you don't like some (or most) of it, I can guarantee that there's still something for everyone.

The Lowdown
8/10. A few disappointments don't stop this compilation from being a worthwhile investment for just about anyone.

• Addendum I: Yelle rocks.
• Addendum II: My opinion of Live Good has gone from "annoying and stupid" to "adorably rediculous," and now that I can appreciate the music a bit more I'm starting to warm up to it.
• Addendum III: Down Down Down by the Hushpuppies is pretty excellent. And it's not electro! It's rock, but kinda like a cross between Nirvana and Tommy James and the Shondells.