I have to confess to being a relative newcomer to the dark and delicious sounds of Frenchy and the Punk, Midnight Garden being their eighth studio album, and me having only been on board since the previous one, the critically acclaimed Zen Ghost. But in the space of that year, I have many times thought, “Why did I not find my way here earlier?” Well, you can’t be everywhere. But I’m here now, and that’s what matters.
And now, it’s all about Midnight Garden, an excellent and electrifying collection of punk salvos and post-punk sounds, goth moves and rock grooves, dance beats, and new wave infusions. It’s an album that both looks to the past for inspiration and sets the tone for alternative music to come.
Kicking off with the title track, the listener is immediately faced with a snarling, Banshees-esque blend of arabesque guitar riffs and driving energy, pounding backbeats, and a vocal delivery delivered with a razor-sharp intensity. “Hypnotized” is a sound clash of brooding gothic tones and alternative pop textures, “Like In A Dream” sees this eclectic duo head down more dreamy sonic pathways, and “Lighting Up the Sky” bristles with the same fractious and fizzing nervous energy that the whole new wave scene was based on, at least the more underground, alternative part of it.
And then there are songs like “Immortal,” which seem to tap into more punk-driven rock roots, woven together in the same way that Concrete Blonde” brilliantly blended such outsider sounds with a more mainstream accessibility.
If someone asks where is a good place to start to get to know Frenchy and the Punk’s sound, anywhere you like is an acceptable answer, such is the strength of their back catalog, but while wholly accurate, that isn’t very helpful to the potential fan. So I would say, start here, and work your way back chronologically. But more specifically, taken together with last year’s Zen Ghost, Midnight Garden is the perfect second blow of a brilliant one-two suckerpunch…a blow that you didn’t see coming, leaving you reeling and which you will never forget!
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Midnight Garden
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