Exsonvaldes - Aranda

“If I am not insane yet, I wish I’ll become”
An emblematic sentence. Admittedly, insanity, that kind which makes you topple totally and unconditionally into music, isn’t reached here yet, but in progress.

With this 4th album, successor of the excellent Lights, Exsonvaldes keeps exploring French pop. In three languages this time, since in addition to English lyrics (despite Simon’s Frenchy accent) and French lyrics now comes the participation in her own language of Spanish singer Helena Miquel, whom these Parisians met during their numerous concerts on the other side of the Pyrenees.

In terms of sound, between heaviness (the twilight opening piece "White Fires", the steamroller "Judging Hand") and lightness (a "Control" all in restraint), the band turns irresistibly peppy tracks which are its trademark: "Horizon" and its good bassline, "Walls" and its so lively afterbeats, or the very synthetic "Stories in Reverse".

If some tunes like "Cyclop" are rather immediate, it took me more time to appreciate "En Silencio", more captivating than it first seemed.
So I will listen to the best tracks of this CD again, until I kill off my brain cells. “And if I am not insane yet, I wish I’ll become.”