LaFille are probably best known in the non-Francophone world as purveyors of the first-class raunch of "Dans Mon Apartment," a super-sexy song whose translation makes trips to Youtube such a shocking delight. To step into the world of their debut album, however, is to travel far beyond such vicarious vivacity, and wallow instead in one of the most electrifying pop/rock albums of the 2000s. Caustic and honest,
LaFille's half-spoken vocal coiled around former Movement guitarist Eric Simonet's instrumentation,
Tout Attache has a punk edge -- far beyond the titular tribute to the
Stooges embodied in "I Want to Be Your Cat" -- and a similarity to the debut albums by
Coralie Clement and
Charlotte Gainsbourg. "Je Suis Mechante" and "Dans Mon Apartment" take that influence the furthest, with discordance and industrial rhythms echoing frenetically behind the melody; "Que Je Me Souvienne," on the other hand, dances between the light and dark of soft vocal and distorted guitar, while "Insecure" is almost trip-hoppy in its atmospherics. Lyrics are largely in French, with just the occasional title or hook performed in English, but like other great French rock, there is a universality to the delivery that dismisses the language barrier altogether. And by the time you reach the closing title track,
Tout Attache will have given you a few new earworms. ~ Dave Thompson