Saturday 3 May 2014

Review - The Plasticines: Back to the Start

The third album by French three-piece female rock act The Plasticines came out earlier this week, and it
certainly shows a band that has changed since their last album came out.

A first listen reveals it to be a much more pop orientated work that their previous output.

They've come a long way from their garage rock roots and while they were always on the more styish and polite side of that genre, this collection is firmly filed under modern electro pop.

It's very much a glossy fashion mag perception of what rock should be, no rough edges and plenty of polish,  the guitars are there, but adding texture rather than taking front stage.

But the songs still still sound punchy even if there's nothing like the razor-sharp Pas Avec Toi or barcelona from 2009's About Love. I would like to hear the band as they used to be perform Upside Down, and their cover of Air's Sexy Boy shows a flash of their attitude.

It's not a bad album, just a  massive change from what they've done so far. While their earlier garage rock grabbed you by the lapels and insisted you paid attention, this is more like something you'd hear on an advertising campaign that you'd grow to like with repeated listening.

But in a music scene where Haim are critically lauded and commercially huge, there's certainly a place for The Plastiscines.

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