Odezenne

Remember that scene at the end of La Grande Bellezza, where we see Jep and the girl who deflowered him? Did it make you remember your first time? It might just be like the first time pictured in the new video by Odezenne. This band, hailing from Paris and Bordeaux, was part of the ‘renaissance of French rap’ in the late 2000’s (zeroes), but now aims for the ‘varieté français’ label, which means they left the boom-bap behind and incorporated more pop-influenced, yet electronic sounds. ‘Je veux te baiser’ (I want to fuck you) is a pretty blunt sentence and title for an elegant song, that lifts the bassline from Julee Cruise’s dreampop-classic ‘Falling’. It’s not rapping what Ali does, it’s more reciting, close to the way Grand Corps Malade or MC 900ft Jesus do. Odezenne reinvent themselves on their new EP ‘Rien’, see also the (also pretty blunt) title track.