Shadow People

On their 2018 album , French duo don't budge an inch from the formula they honed to a knife edge on all the albums that preceded it. Starting in 2010, and mapped out territory that hit the sweet spot where , , sultry French pop, and Italian soundtrack music all meet to smoke cigarettes and look hard. The basic template is the same here, and like everything else they do, the fun is in the precision with which they deliver their songs and the occasional deviation that snaps the listener to life. Sometimes they do it through stripping back the noise to an acoustic core; sometimes they add an arresting vocalist or guest; sometimes they uncover a gleaming nugget of a melody. On they bring in cool people to do their thing: again to play some swooping bass on the -sounding "The Gift," of to add his distinctive vocals to the strutting "Istanbul Is Sleepy," and French actress to give the insistently hooky title track some cinematic class. The duo give the formula a slight twist on "Dimanche," mixing in some burbling sequenced pulses below the typically driving late-night rocker, and on "Pink Flamingos" they dial back the pounding beats to deliver a crystalline pop song framed by tinkling pianos and buzzing organs. Add in some typically tough and tender songs that sound like they were written and recorded in between gang fights, and ends up being a quintessentially -sounding album. Nothing too shocking, but also nothing to give lovers of their sound any pause or worries that, after releasing so many records in a short time frame, they might start phoning it in. sound like they're too cool and nonchalant to even have a phone, much less use one to make a less than great record. ~ Tim Sendra