The French Semester * Open Letter to the Disappeared
January 8, 2010 by Sugartune
Filed under Indie Music Reviews
Let me set up the scenario. It’s 9:00 Saturday morning and I’m grumpy and fried because I made 48 crème brûlée last night, and ate five of them. I’m also wired on espresso. I don’t know if this all affects my ears or objectivity, but fuck objectivity anyway.
J'aime. J'aime. Le French Semester.
Sunny sounding indy-pop? Yes, it is. Endearingly homemade sounding? Yup. Catchy? Uh-huh. Plus-the lyrics that I managed to catch sounded pretty cool. I also heard phantom harmonies where, on second listen, there were none. Implied parts that fool you into hearing things within the space of the song that don’t exist are always good. Sort of like how Hemingway says things by not saying them. I suppose that’s the point of minimalism. So far, so good.
The tunes made this cold Canadian morning slightly warmer, tricked my ears, and helped the bad mood a bit.
– Review by Biff of The Woodrunners
Sugartune Review
I dig the 60s influence. Your Master Plan struts like Day Tripper with the bass and guitar duplicating the main riff. The Blue Distance sounds like it belongs on ‘Hollywood Dream’ by Thunderclap Newman. Lots of open space between the instruments with simple interplay throughout driven by naive, stutter step drumming. Engaging, charming pop fare served up lo-fi. Might very well sound like Brian Wilson’s brain, back in the day, as he awoke from the sandbox before the neurons started to compose the vocal harmonies and orchestra parts.
Feeding from the trough of: Big Star, Guided By Voices, Thunderclap Newman
MySpace: www.myspace.com/thefrenchsemester
