City of Exiles - Dead in Hollywood

Here’s an album with a great deal of atmosphere, you’ve got to give it time of gaining ground to really appreciate it.
One thing’s for sure: it makes a change from what you can hear in the media.

What’s there? A danse macabre which would make Saint-Saëns jealous ("Cannibal Song"), a cool western, with or without spaghetti ("Keep out (or be Shot)"), and even an unexpected cover of a hit from Madonna in her mystic era ("Frozen"), but darker and a bit slowed down.

The Goth people should find their groove, as you take a good amount of darkness in the music, alternating sound textures and suspended arpeggios, like a desolation mood ("Drive Stranger", "Dead in Hollywood"). In the lyrics, death isn’t lacking almost anywhere. Including in the album title, chosen because “rock is dead in Hollywood when Elvis started to make movies there”.
About death, the sentence “I hate myself and I want to die”, working title of Nirvana’s In Utero, is one of the numerous quotations used by the narrator of "You Can Dance", “a coward who hides behind his rock references to give himself courage”, leader Guillaume Lebouis says.

City of Exiles, whose name comes from Stuart Braun’s book devoted to musicians who found shelter in Berlin, is a flexible band of friends. Around the movie-lover Guillaume, his usual acolytes are called Mathieu Forest (ex Radiosofa), David Fontaine and especially Mathieu Pigné, band Animal Triste’s brave instigator (and recently author of detective novel!) Handling the drums in all pieces, he delivered an admirable work once again. Not to be outdone, his buddies from Rouen are part of it: singer Yannick Marais (la Maison Tellier, Animal Triste) intervenes in "Frozen" and in "Dead in Hollywood" (I bet he’s the one who’s whistling), guitarists Fabien Senay, Sébastien Miel and Darko, here on bass, are playing too. As well as Peter Hayes (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club). 3 young women named Moonya, Louise and Pauline round off the array with backing vocals absolutely required to give emphasis to pieces and/or to overcome Guillaume’s singing limits, sometimes resembling some Yves Simon who’d experience English – with due respect to both.

Only small obstacle, but not insurmountable, I’d regret, like for Volo, a little problem in identification of the songs due to the choice of their title, making it difficult to tame them. Let me help the lost listener: "Keep out (or be Shot)" is "Late yesterday night", "Tumbleweed" is "Dream last night", "Ghost Rider" is "Lullaby", "Dead in Hollywood" is "When you fall in love".
And I advise you to find your way fast. For this good band, tortured as we love, doesn’t mean to call it quits. I’ve been told in my earpiece that a 3rd album is already in progress! With a great deal of atmosphere too?