French Music From France, In French

L'Affaire Louis Trio and Les Innocents were France's answer to Britpop, which wasn't a question. France never had a strong pop group tradition, favoring solo artists, and neither group came from Paris, so their success came as a welcome surprise, seemingly out of nowhere - at least to Parisians, who tend not to look beyond the périphérique, the grim ring road that acts as a wall to keep out the rest of France, and the world. From the eighties into the nineties L'ALT and Les Inno sent hits up the charts, lighting up the radio with infectious tunes and making it seem like l'âge d'or [Fr. big door - Ed.] of pop group pop. Unfortunately, they didn't start a tradition, and French pop, with some exceptions, refocused on solo artists.

L'ALT started out making jumpy disco and dancehall pop, but quickly matured into a band capable of delivering one of the finest concept albums ever made anywhere, Mobilis In Mobile, which means, before Ed. sticks his nose in, free in a free world. Sorta. It's the Latin motto adopted by Jules Verne's Captain Nemo. Older readers may remember when Nemo wasn't a fish. As you might expect, L'ALT are a bunch of boulevard intellectuals, and this album is fathoms deeper than Yellow Submarine (thank God). But what hits you is the giddy melodic joy, the thrilling production, the sheer boggling quality of the thing, from the beautifully constructed cover to the last submarine bell. How can a single album contain so many great hooks, song after song? It is fucking brilliant.

Les Innocents were a dryer bunch, with a yearning quality to much of their work, and not as adroit with a melody, but there's a lovely element of classic pop jangle, Gallicized with a little squeezebox and tasteful strings. Fous à Lier is maybe their best album, with their best song, L'Autre Finistère, which packs a universally understandable emotional punch.

These albums are as good as pop group pop gets, which is to say, as good as music gets. Vive le pop!