French Kicks

Swimming

(Vagrant)

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

The French Kicks are just so Walkmen, it kills me. You could listen to this as the Walkmen’s little brother – kinda like how the Robbers on High Street are to Spoon, perhaps, but there’s more going on here than that. You do have to admit the similarities:  in the vocals (sometimes) in the drumming, in the guitar, but there seems to be a smoothness, an almost Sea & Cake-like twist in the melodics, pushing the Kicks into different waters, or at least into a different part of the same pool.  It is interesting to me that this release found it’s way on to Vagrant, when in my ears it sounds very much like something you would find on Thrill Jockey. They have that New York post-punk sound mixing with the early U2 feel, and yeah – they’re friends with those Walkmen people.

It’s kind of difficult to write a review of a band that has so much that’s stylistically similar to another band – especially if they are both playing in the same time period – and they both create sounds and songs that are worth listening to. Swimming moves a little more into the post-rock sounds, but still manages to move very upbeat and solid across each song that falls from the speakers. Sometimes there’s even a little Marvin Gaye-type soulful groove that hits against the angularities of rhythm.