Album: Juniore - Trois, Deux, Un

Although it takes seconds to discern that Juniore are French, a core inspiration appears to be the echoing surf-pop instrumentals of Californian studio band The Marketts, whose 1963 single "Out of Limits" became their most well-known track. Add in – exemplified by Trois, Deux, Un’s fifth and sixth tracks “Amour fou” and “Grand voyageur” – the languid atmosphere of the early Françoise Hardy and the result is a form of Gallic retro-futurist garage-pop.

Juniore are a Paris-based three piece and Trois, Deux, Un is their third album. There is more to this musical bricolage than the two most evident touchstones: “Dans le dos” dips into Phil Spector territory with its castanets and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” descending melody. “Voilà voilà” has a touch of “Big City”-era Spacemen 3. It is clear Juniore know their music, know what they are aiming for and are aware of exactly what it is they are doing. Those deadpan talk-sung vocals aren’t arrived at spontaneously.

In the Francophone world, Trois, Deux, Un does not exist in a creative vacuum. Some of the early Melody’s Echo Chamber was along these lines. And back in the Eighties, Belgium’s Antena (sic) – were they shorn of the Bossa Nova touches – weren’t dissimilar, In France, Benjamin Biolay has also skirted this territory. But this is about more than the Gallic ecosphere. With the elegant Trois, Deux, Un, Juniore are reaching out to anyone with a yen for the cool and the refined; anyone yearning for a fresh take on the archetypal.

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