Record Label: Groove Attack
Genre: French Pop
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

Although I like checking out music from other countries, I know practically nothing about French pop. This comp serves as a nicely varied (if not eclectic) introduction, though a lot of it is cheesy, or as they say, fromage.

French pop, in my small experience via Nouvelle Vague, the Paris Combo, and this comp, is a soft, loungey style of pop that mixes the 50s crooner sound with 60s space-age bachelor pad sexiness and a light touch of Latin jazz. This is music that requires dimming the lights.

The male artists all feel dated and corny, because, well, I don’t want to hear a dude sing breathlessly in a romance language to me. The women are nicer to listen to, because, well, women are soft and squishy.

In that vein, Austine, Melanie Pain, Holden, and Jeanne Cherhal are all dreamy, and their voices have taught me the tender touch of love.

As for the dudes, Ludo Pin differentiate themselves with a lofi funkiness, Bastien Lallemant is hand-clapping fun, and Pascal Parisot invokes a circusy coolness (in that restrained French manner).

This comp is relaxing mood music, good for a dinner party with your Upper West Side professor friends. Put on your best tweed jacket, sip some burgundy from an oversized wine glass, and let it lull you away.

Bottom Line: Somewhere between beautiful and embarrassing.
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