Les matins de grands soirs

Album Review

With the exception of Telephone and Plastic Bertrand (who, to be fair, was Belgian), few artists have truly rocked out effectively in French. Add Montreal garage rockers Les Breastfeeders to that list; building on their already strong debut album by toughening up their sound and downshifting on the most blatant '60s references, Matins de Grands Soirs is a fist-shaking piece of scrappy power pop that would be a breathless delight in any language. Having the lyrics in Quebecois French indeed may be a benefit to non-Francophone listeners, since verbal acuity is rarely the point of this brand of three-chord punk-pop. Regardless of the language barriers, however, the spunky kick of a song like "Viens avec Moi" is infectious and undeniable, as is the Ramones-like shang-a-lang of "Funny Funiculaire" (one of several songs featuring the just plain adorable girl group sound of singing guitarist Suzie McLelove).