Artist.......: Cheveu
Album........: Bum
Label........: Born Bad Records
Genre........: Alternative
Catnr........:
Source.......: CD (LP)
Rip.date.....: 2014-03-08
Str.date.....: 2014-00-00
Quality......: 282kbps/44.1kHz/Joint Stereo
Url..........:
track title time
1. Pirate bay 3:40
2. Slap and shot 3:16
3. Polonia 6:12
4. Juan in a million 4:04
5. Stadium 3:04
6. Albinos 4:07
7. Madame Pompidou 3:28
8. Monsieur Perrier 3:29
9. Blood and gore 2:43
10. Johnny hurry up 6:34
Runtime 40:37
Size 82.38
Release Notes:
There's a 2011 video of Cheveu whipping an audience into a frenzy with a searing
rendition of "Hello Friends" off their debut LP. Take the band out of that Paris
scene and you could just as easily be looking at a Dan Deacon show, with sweaty
bodies elatedly dancing and flying all over the place. Close your eyes for a
minute, and David Lemoine's shouted vocals, which are manipulated by machines,
could be mistaken for MC Ride's. Factor in that show's opening actùTyvekùand you
start to get a loose frame of reference for this band's M.O.: scrappy garage
punk, belligerent percussion, textural chaos, primary colored synth oddities,
and perhaps most importantly, lyrics with absurd narratives and a sense of
humor. All of those things came into play on their debut, and even though they
added ornate string arrangements on their 2011 follow-up 1000, Cheveu were still
erratic, scattered, and just a little bit ridiculous.
Their third album, BUM, is an unpredictable record, but it's perhaps their most
delicately arranged. The best example of this is "Polonia", which opens with
gentle drum machine taps, soft guitars, and quiet, warm vocal harmonies. At six
minutes, it's the longest track on the album, and around the minute mark, they
kick up the sort of minor key urgency you hear just before a Nintendo boss
fight. Like they do through the rest of BUM, the trio explore vocal
texturesùdeep rumbling "mum mum mum" voices and staccato stabs of soprano "ah ah
ah"s. It's an epic melodrama, and it's fairly indicative of what they offer
throughout. Sure, there's still gutter punk, which they demonstrate with the
distorted guitars that introduce "Albinos". But it's not long before they curb
that sound with high-pitched synths. Even Lemoine's greasy, deep vocals
dissipate into a glowing, beatific sheen.
It may be fair to say that BUM is the album where Cheveu have cleaned up their
sound the most, but just because the fidelity's improved doesn't mean they can't
tap into impressive grooves. "Slap and Shot" has motorik drive and "Pirate Bay"
rides a Squeeze-ian new wave jaunt. "Juan in a Million" features an organ and
tinges of sunny instrumentals (including a triangle). That track also finds the
band's sense of humor intact, with so many Juan-based puns ("Juan for all and
all for Juan") and an awesomely anticlimactic monologue: "You know, Juan is good
friends with everyone. Yeah. Good friends. Yup." Later, on "Stadium", there's a
grand, stomping instrumental that accompanies a decree about the importance of
masturbation.
In the best case scenario, their theatricality results in something like
"Polonia", a well-crafted and consistently interesting sprawl. At times, though,
that inclination takes them into tedious territory. "Juan", for example, becomes
repetitive near the end. Worse is the ultra-pitched down deep voices on "Madame
Pompidou", a too-long "spooky" track that could be convincingly branded as a
grating outtake from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
That's ultimately the blessing and the curse of BUM. It's an album where there's
so much going on that when a joke falls flat or any sonic element registers as
dubious or obnoxious, it's easy to get disenchanted with its overstuffed format.
But then there are beautiful moments, like the final seconds of "Monsieur
Perrier", when the trio pare the song down to its most basic elements: an array
of cuckooing voices (formerly frantic, but when unaccompanied, oddly lovely) and
a simple melody plunked out on a piano. Cheveu have made an album that's
constantly shifting but never quite cacophonous. They've clearly got a good ear
for melody and drive, and they never threaten stagnation. Right as a song's
nearing monotony, they'll quickly change the rhythm or implement an entirely new
soundscape. The album is frequently surprising and never boring. Put another
way: It's a Cheveu album.