The history of the album "Paradigmes" by the French band La Femme
Paradigmes is the third studio album by French rock band La Femme. The recording was released in early April 2021: the album includes tracks that are significantly different in sound from everything the band has done before. La Femme refused to follow their own genre norms! As a result, they presented aggressive stylistic changes, collected in "Paradigmes"... Chaotic, and at the same time exciting sound... It turned out quite unusual. That is why today we will consider this album in more detail!
About the album...
To date, La Femme is perhaps the most popular rock band in France! They recorded the soundtrack for the Céline runway show and appeared in black and white photographs on the personal blog of Hedi Slimane, a French photographer and designer… They were on the cover of Les Inrockuptibles, the country's most influential cultural magazine. In Paris they are inevitable, because in Paris they are everywhere! You can go to any record store in town and easily find their previous releases: 2016's Mystère with its bright cover and cold wave songs, and 2013's dark debut journey Psycho Tropical Berlin. In Paris, La Femme can easily put together a huge arena...
"Paradigmes" is a kind of trip across America! And there is no solid narrative structure here: only hours spent behind the wheel, traveling through mountains and deserts, quixotic geographical markers that look exactly like in any story ... "Paradigmes" is fun, exciting and always varied! Yes, like on any album, there are dark moments here: “Foutre le bordel” or “Le sang de mon prochain”, close to the electro-swing genre… However, the whole album is so frivolous that it may seem like an hour-long joke inside! "Paradigmes" is a good thing to listen to, but its intellectual merit is completely superficial. It's like watching the funniest person at a college philosophy seminar make a presentation that they couldn't prepare in advance: you laugh, but not because you've learned anything... Actually, let's take a closer look at the tracks.
“After we went on tour with Mystère in 2017, the band took a break from music. We reunited in 2019 in the hope of finishing the recording, collected a bunch of material from our hard drives and chose 15 songs to create Paradigmes! It took us a long time to finish because we are picky about details…” commented bassist Sam Lefebvre.
As the album's title suggests, Paradigmes' storytelling is as unique as its grandiose musical arrangements. While the lyrics reveal many of the anxieties and frustrations associated with cultural norms and expectations within Western culture as a whole, they equally address the personal issues of the human experience, such as love and grief, sexual and gender annoyances, and general feelings of depression. and nihilism. The group explains that they were able to touch on both existential and intimate topics by tapping into their intuition, noting:
“Maybe it’s easier to write when you are sad or negative? The record took on a life of its own as we reflected on our own experiences…”
Tracks
In "Paradigmes" not every song is so frankly about America, if it is about America at all. "Disconnexion", the record's most ambitious track, moves from sedentary philosophical discussions about Pascal and Descartes to a dizzying banjo and a huge baroque solo a la Wendy Carlos! "Lacher de Chevaux" is sort of a nod to Ennio Morricone's style, specifically to his track "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". 'Foreigner' is reminiscent of Giorgio Moroder's 'From Here to Eternity', with synths that chirp like animated birds... It's the track that also features some of the harshest - and most obnoxious - lyrics. "Nouvelle-Orléans" is a state of mind, a place to dream about when all else is uncertain... "Pasadena" is about teenage romances with drum machines and synths that resemble Catherine's wheel. "You're with your friends / I'm with my mates / Heading to the skate park," Magne mutters, his voice a twisting wave of distortion...
The project is crowned with a special aesthetic created by the band... The video for the title track takes place in the futuristic Paradigmes nightclub. Among his regulars are go-go dancers, cyborg singers and intellectuals, strikingly reminiscent of Michel Foucault. There is a feeling that "Paradigmes" is a place where everyone is welcome.
The band states that the album's title track and their song "Disconnexion" were the inspiration for their fictional club.
Conclusion
"Paradigmes" is an absolute whirlwind. It's a real pleasure from beginning to end, immersing you in the mystical universe of La Femme, and returning back ... The album, filled with heavy copper psychedelic music, keeps high energy throughout! Result? A fascinating exercise in creating the most hypnotic electro-pop ever... The album is completely electrifying and lifts you straight out of the four walls of your isolated space into the high-speed, galaxy-tinged world of the French band! Their tracks are imbued with such specifics of the location that it's hard not to plunge into it completely. "Paradigmes" is a journey: from the twinkling night lights of the night city to outer space! And you will no doubt want to be attached to it... The sound experiments they rely on on the album are just on top! The album brings different sounds and experiences together to cement a territory that belongs exclusively to La Femme: no one else could create hypnotic sounds like them. There is something charming about the vocals too. The spoken word heralding the haunting but optimistic "Le sang de mon prochain" is replaced by intoxicatingly harmonious vocals. La Femme have put their charms into action and Paradigmes is a really powerful spell...
