Album review

Louise Attaque

A plus tard crocodile

Paris 

16/09/2005 - 

Four years ago, Louise Attaque called a halt to their chart-topping career. But the popular rock foursome have now reformed and recorded a new album, A plus tard crocodile. Louise Attaque's third album taps into the group's habitual rock'n'folk vein, but never shows any sign of the band taking the easy way out.

Well, who would ever have thought we'd see Louise Attaque back in the spotlight so soon? In 2001, after putting the finishing touches to a half-hearted second album - which the group willingly admitted was marrred by frustration and self-censorship -  the foursome entered their final phase of burn-out. What had led to this fatal pass? The story began back in 1996 when lead singer Gaetan Roussel and bass-player Robin Feix, musicians who had been friends since their schooldays, began doing the rounds of the Paris record companies, demo tape in hand. They went on to team up with drummer Alexandre Margraff and fiddle-player Arnaud Samuel and the group Louise Attaque was born. The foursome went on to make their mark on the live scene, playing countless gigs in 'indie' venues up and down the country. Meanwhile, impressed by the quality of their 8-track demo, Atmosphériques (a label distributed by Sony Music) eventually stepped in to sign the band.

In the spring of 1997, the group released their debut eponymous album, Louise Attaque. Two years later they had gone down in music history as the best-selling French rock band of all time, having sold a staggering 2.5 million copies  of their album without the slightest hint of a marketing campaign or extended play on the French airwaves (during the first year, at least!) The group's melodic, poetic folk-rock was enough to pull the crowds, as quickly became evident from their chart-topping single J’t’emmène au vent. However, Louise Attaque's success story soon proved to have a flipside. Beset by the pressures of producing a follow-up and riven by internal wrangling, the foursome began to pull apart as individual members expressed the desire to jump ship and embark on personal projects. Like the legendary French rock band Téléphone fifteen years earlier, Louise Attaque ended up splitting two ways in 2001 with Gaetan Roussel and Arnaud Samuel going off to form the group Tarmac, while Robin Feix and Alexandre Margraff launched Ali Dragon.

Evolution without compromise

Now, four years later, Louise Attaque are back together and back in action with a set of new songs they tested out on audiences this summer. (The Paris foursome have been particularly busy on the festival circuit, playing at major events such as "Les Eurockéennes.") But the question on everyone's lips is: "Is this just a commercial comeback or a genuine revival of inspiration? One thing can be said in the band's favour and that is that despite their overwhelming success, they have never lost their musical independence. And this comeback should not disappoint – fans from the early days will not be thrown by the sound on the new album, although critics will inevitably complain that the music was better before! Whatever the case, A plus tard crocodile (See You Later Alligator) hit stores on 5 September. The album, partly produced on a farm in the Lubéron region in France, partly in New York with the help of producer Mark Plati, features the usual mix of moody, and at times downright melancholic ambiences, and wild, foot-tapping rhythms. But it also shows signs of a certain evolution in the group's songwriting and smacks of a sincerity ready to flout the slightest hint of compromise.

While Louise Attaque's previous album, Comme on a dit, was a dark piece of work, from its subject matter to its all-black cover, A plus tard crocodile is more open and more openly serene – although this does not stop a trace of doubt creeping in every now and then. On La Traversée du désert (Crossing the Desert), Gaetan Roussel calls things into question, wondering whether it's possible to remain a beginner for ever. And the soul-searching that must have gone on prior to the group's comeback runs through the entire album like a filigree thread. And, make no mistake about it, this was no rushing back into the spotlight, bady prepared and caught unawares! Louise Attaque gave themselves the time to sit back and mull things over, getting together back in September 2003 to work on a selection of new songs such as Revolver. And it would take a full eighteen months before the new album was ready.

An interior voyage

Musically, A plus tard crocodile proves that Louise Attaque have not lost their touch. The album packs a solid punch and features the group's usual play on 'gimmicks' (notably on the first single release Si c’était hier). What's more, the foursome manage to keep their inimitable live sound even on record, enriching their music this time round with new input after their experiences with Tarmac and Ali Dragon. There's a hint of global inspiration on A plus tard crocodile, too, with the presence of Gypsy fiddles, Asian influences (on the superbly hypnotic Shibuya Station) and American references (c.f. Manhattan). But, as always with Louise Attaque, the journey is more a voyage to the core of the self than an outward destination. And the foursome's quirky rock'n'folk mix is still capable of pulling in the fans! À plus tard crocodile has already rocketed to the no.2 spot in the French album chart and their upcoming tour, which includes dates at L’Olympia in Paris and L’Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, will doubtless prove to be another sell-out affair.

Meanwhile, Louise Attaque remain as wary as ever of the media, who snubbed them completely in the early days. Now, of course, the foursome are inundated with requests for interviews – and can turn them down at their leisure! Fame, it seems, has an upside as well as a flipside.

Louise Attaque A plus tard crocodile (Atmosphériques/Sony Music) 2005

Gilles  Rio

Translation : Julie  Street