Blam! That’s how you grab the listener’s attention. No preamble. No slow build-up. No gradual intrigue or sense of anticipation. Right from the first beat, French Inhaler are into the song, up and running and delivering the goods. And the goods are very good… great, actually; a mix of post-punk pop poise and New Wave jaunt, synthy and seductive, groovesome and graceful, energetic almost to the point of euphoric.
But if that seems to suggest that Plastic Ocean has a lot going on, that it is a busy or complex track, it isn’t; French Inhaler are great, making music with just the right amount of sonic separation and space for the light to get in and everything to breathe.
Basslines echo seminal post-punkers such as Simon Gallop or Peter Hook; drums are fast and full of frisson, and the whole thing is soaked in liquid synths and beguiling sonics.
But more than anything, it is immediate, accessible, contagious, a slice of pop perfection that sits between the chart music radar of the modern mainstream pop-picker and the cultish status of the coolest alternative and underground revivalists. Not a bad place to be, a place where credibility and cool aren’t sacrificed for commerciality.
If there were any justice, this would be what the charts of today and the mainstream radio playlists would sound like. Wouldn’t that be something?
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