Various Artists
Kitsune Parisien II
Kitsune

Link – Kitsune

Back in 1999, I was perusing the local record store when I stumbled upon Emperor Norton’s Pop Romantique. The compilation featured French pop songs performed by the top indie pop bands at the time. Some were covers of classic French pop, while others were specifically written just for this album.

It was a whimsical impulse buy solely for the bands who were listed: Air, Luna, Ivy, The Magnetic Fields, all singing in french and all in their own unique manner. More than any other compilation, it’s a CD I can still dig out and fully enjoy it for its delicacy, importance, and connection the ‘90s had to the ‘60s and all wrapped up in a neat little fashion statement. I feel like I have a better understanding of French pop through this album than I had before.

Flash forward to 2012, and the release of Kitsune Parisien II, the second compilation from the electronic music label. When you look at primarily United States artists exploring the french ideology, Kitsune Records is a nice perspective of a french label working hard to break through to the United States and beyond, exploring fashion through music, and music as a fashion identity.

Listen through the roster and these bands are trying so hard to stand out and punch their way through with a fierceness like the bands like Birkii and Exotica, both electronic pop bands spinning around what I could see as underground pop poshness in the Parisian landscape.

Of course the label brings in a connectedness through a person who can only bridge the gap from the ‘90s to the 2010s, and that is Jean Benoit-Dunckel from Air. His side band Tomorrow’s World invites you in with a familiarity of the song “So Long My Love” that doesn’t deviate far from what he does in Air. It’s also a fine statement of what we are about to experience. This music is tomorrow’s world.

There are a few songs that stick out beyond the electronica paradigm like Juveniles’ masterful pogo pop “Ambitions” and Nameless’ “Angelina,” but even these two bands have electronic capacities to some effect.

If Kitsune Parisien II is any indication of the direction of French pop, then expect something more charged from the youth instead of a whimsical laissez-faire approach, a style french pop is notorious for. These bands are feisty and the groups have an energy that mashes up soft punk ideology with underground electronic aesthetics. The New Wave has finally caught up with the mainstream.

I’m not sure how someone like Francois Hardy would take that, but one thing is certain, the times have changed and if you can wrap your mind into a more populous sound, then you will warm up to this compilation and respect what Kitsune is trying to do.

Bands Listed on Compilation

Tomorrow’s World, Juveniles, Owlle, Lescop, About the Girl, Nameless, Birkii, Beataucue, We Are Knights, Wolfpack Beartrack, Slowdance, Exotica, LA/KVLVD, and Pyramid