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jetaime aggressive
Artist: Je T’aime
Title: Aggressive
Genre: Post-Punk
Release Date: 1st November 2022
Label: Manic Depression Records


Album Review

Part two of the ‘Passive/Aggressive’ album release by Parisian Post-Punk trio JE T’AIME, and there’s no pausing for breath, as the band hurtles onwards and upwards with the kind of steely, passionate urgency normally reserved for the condemned. And despite the subject matter of their songs veering from the darkly comical to the darkly dark, there’s absolute joie de vivre coursing through all they do, from chaotic live shows, the developing cult of personality within the band, to the sheer quality of the song-writing. There’s a reason they keep popping up everywhere you look.

Opener ‘Elbow Beach’ hooks you in confidently, all moody noodling and the instantly recognisable yearning yelp of singer D-Boy, before ‘Evil Curves’ chops and changes and messes with the head, while bizarrely sounding like DEXY’S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS covering THE CURE. To my knowledge, that’s a first. ‘If Only’ follows a more conventional Post-Punk route, but is entirely convincing in execution, and synths dominate ‘Kiss The Boys (And Make Them Die)’, creating an irresistible dance-floor monster, every industrious little part of the whole straining to be heard and to contribute.

It’s hugely busy, but feels organic, not constructed, and is one of the band’s most accomplished songs to date. Things rumble and tumble back into barely contained chaos on ‘Tales Of Despair’, before the utter despair of ‘The Last Words Of A Sad And Pathetic Hero’ drops you in cold, deep water, leaving you struggling there for breath. And closer ‘Winter Lake’ is certainly not going to pull you out, the taut claustrophobia astonishing, the relentless despair exhausting.

JE T’AIME know exactly what they are doing. They succeed in finding space to be original and experimental within genres that felt long-since depleted, and like all the best bands, can write music of vast scope and depth, while having the most awesome time creating it. More, more, more…


Tracklist

01. Elbow Beach
02. Evil Curves
03. Gone Away
04. If Only
05. Kiss The Boys (And Make Them Die)
06. Leave Me For Dead
07. Out Of Sight
08. Tales Of Despair
09. The Last Words Of A Sad And Pathetic Hero
10. Winter Lake


Line-up

D Boy – Programming / Synths / Bass / Guitar / Vocals
Tall Bastard – Bass / Guitar
Crazy Z – Guitar


Website

https://www.jetaime-music.com / https://www.facebook.com/jetaimethemusic


Cover Picture

jetaime aggressive


Rating

Music: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9 /10


Written by Stephen Kennedy

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