Britpop - Non! Frogpop - Oui!

Famed animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot dances to the latest Affaire Louis Trio chart topper, yesterday. C'est swing!

Back when British rock, pop n' roll fans were busy convincing themselves that Oasis and Blur were the vanguard of a resurgence of traditional pop group values, the French were quietly doing it better, and under the radar, because they sang in French, which nobody outside France (or worse, Quebec) gives a fuck about.

Beau comme un camion

Affaire Louis Trio [à gauche - Ed.] is a Great Lost Pop Group. Even in France, where the garbage men speak French they're so cultured, mention of their name today will get a contemptuous Gallic shrug. Yet in the 'eighties, they and Les Innocents made music that effortlessly revivified the songwriting excellence of the great British groups (there is no trace of American influence), producing albums that to this day get repeat plays in th' IoF© Conversation Pit O' Sound®, if nowhere else.

Oui, byeng shewer, je parle Français, but I rarely focus on lyrics when listening to pop and if you're the type guy what can't speak French (i.e. statistically as near the entire global population as makes no diff) you might try this approach. Yes, you'd miss out on some of the cleverest lyrics ever written for pop, but so what. You get the tunes, the playing, the everything else, which is considerable. Just pretend you understand, goddammit, like you pretend to understand Taylor Swift so young people think you're not cringe.

Today's loadup is the cream of the cream. Trust me. The first three were okay, but this is ALT in its full pop splendor. Europium has the limited edition cover and vital extra tracks, the others don't need anything to make them perfect.

Here's antecedently posted screed about Mobilis In Mobile:

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, whom older readers may remember from when Nemo wasn't a fish and Doug McLure was a film star. As you might expect, ALT are a bunch of boulevard intellectuals, and this album is fathoms deeper than Yellow Submarine. 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.

Loaddown also includes L'Homme Au Mille Vies, the not-quite-there second album Sans Légende, and Le Meilleur De. Five - count 'em" - albums of pure pop paradis.

This post made obligatory by Babs' continued absence while she gets her toxins flushed at Gwyneth Paltrow's Holistic Wellness Yurt, Mons Veneris, AR.