Merde Canada (français)! Quand êtes-vous devenu si chébran?

Remember when you first learned what it meant to "French kiss" and you were like -WTF- I'm not doing that. And then you did it and you kind of liked it? Maybe you liked it a lot? Well, if you've never been a fan of Francophone music, Malajube  is your musical French kiss. Yes they sing in French -- no it doesn't matter. I promise. 

Formed by a group of friends in Montréal, the band made itself known in 2004 when they release Le Compte Complet. Though they sing entirely in French, they have a significant English-speaking following and claim that they in fact have the hardest time relating to -- no surprise here -- the French. Malajube has an interesting musical style that teeters precariously between the vivacious, though thoroughly vapid body of work compiled by 90's punk-poppers and the highly revered and respected work of Elliot Smith. Exclaim! Canada recently described the band's style as, "wracked with fatalist romanticism, while the song's grab-bag of nursery rhyme sweetness, lush layers of noise and loping prog-rockisms gives an equally accurate sonic forecast for an eclectic album full of unconventional structures."

Malajube should most catch your eye because they've managed to survive the sophomore album slump. Sophomore albums say a lot about musicians; they either exceed or fail to meet expectations. The trick, however, is that the artist has to do something new without alienating the base of fans that popularized their debut. Malajube managed to follow Le Comte Complet with Trompe-L'oeil which won Malajube three Felix Awards and put them in shortlisted competition with Canadian favorites Metric , Broken Social Scene  and Wolf Parade for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize.

In Spring of 2009 Malajube added another card to the deck. Labyrinthes seems to indicates a certain musical maturity and has a more refined, alternative sound. "It's still pretty pop," says Thomas (on keyboards) "It's not as if we felt like we had to start making experimental funk. But we'd played the old songs so much that we needed to evolve with new sounds, new ideas. So we jammed a lot, and experimented with a bunch of new things, like Gregorian chanting." Who doesn't like Gregorian chanting? Exactly.

My Suggestion?

Buy both Labyrinthes and Trompe-L'oeil and pay special attention to the following:

-Etienne D'aout: 

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Montreal -40: 

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Casablanca: *sigh* Check it out on iTunes.