#albumoftheday / REVIEW: PLASTISCINES: BACK TO THE START

I’m always listening to new music, picking things that stand out among the crowd to review for Love is Pop.  The problem is, sometimes you have to listen to a lot of mediocre music before you find something truly marvelous.  I was having one of those days when everything I listened to seemed quite dull when I stumbled upon this, the new and third album by Plastiscines, Back To The Start, which is also their first album since 2009’s terrific About Love.  Speaking of About Love, I did not think this band would ever make another album that was that catchy.  About Love was like kismet, something they were fated to make but could never remake.  Well, Back To The Start isn’t a remake of that album, but it’s just as infectious, loaded with pop rock sweets to give you a little pick me up during your afternoon blues.

As you may or may not be aware, the Plastiscines are French.  They mostly sing in English, but occasionally they do whip out the French, and those songs are always among their very best.  To that end, Back To The Start opens with a slick, ultra-modern French pop tune called “Comment Faire,” which basically means “How will we do it?”  “Are you the bad boy?” goes the one line in English.  Between the hard and punchy beats and the sultry lyrics, this song is built for sex.  So is the following song, “Ooh La La,” which sports the lyric “he’s gonna beg for more.”  “He wants to ooh la, la, la.”  It’s one hell of an earworm, wiggling its way inside your brain where it stays there and reproduces with each beat.  Aside from their superb original songs, there are a pair of covers here, songs you’d never expect them to do, which is part of why they’re so great.  First is their cover of Lana Del Rey’s “Blue Jeans,” which they’ve totally transformed into an up-tempo pop rock song, making it even more irresistible than the original.  Which isn’t to say that it’s better than the original.  It’s just more uppity, turbo-charged.  Then there’s the second cover, Air’s “Sexy Boy,” which they start off almost acapella until they hit the chorus and the funky and thick bass guitar part kicks in.  At that point, it’s impossible to sit still while listening to it. With that killer bass guitar playing, they manage to take Air’s electro-pop gem and turn it into something much more organic.  The buzzing guitar parts are also quite enticing, which is the word I’d use if I had to sum up the album that way: enticing.