Rockin' Our Turntable: Le Concorde
By Michele Lenni in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 15, 2010 7:30PM
We are definitely suckers for nostalgia here at the Chicagoist offices. The office stereo has been know to blast '80s enthusiasts such as Cut Copy, Kisses and Twin Shadow regularly. The mellow vocals, swirling synths and dreamy sound-scapes are enough to transport us to the back seat of the family station wagon any time we delve into the genre. Even though we have gravitated toward these sounds during its recent resurgence, that doesn't mean that we are not discerning about what we're listening to, especially when there have been a slew of artists trying to capitalize on the genre's popularity.
Recently we got our hands on the newest record from Chicago's own '80s rock enthusiast, Stephen Becker, and his band Le Concorde. Becker was a staple of the Chicago music scene for many years but recently returned to his native California. Since Becker is a Chicago boy, we had hoped for the best with the release of House, but we were truly disappointed. Becker falls short of his contemporaries that we love so much in what is an extremely forgettable and uninspiring effort.
In what seems like an attempt to take advantage of the popularity of dance-driven, 80s-inspired artists like Passion Pit, Le Concorde produces a recorded engulfed in tawdry keyboard riffs, basic drum machine beats and over-the-top synths. The entire album sounds like it could have been recorded by any musician with a laptop and a copy of Pro-Tools; not to mention sugary-sweet, sing-song lyrics that are capable of giving even the biggest Emo fans a toothache. Most songs, though trying to emulate the best pop artists of the '80s, end up sounding more like the '70s AM soft rock station we've heard while laying back in the dentist's chair. Songs on House that somewhat stand out like Cherry Blossoms and Kisses with Comet Tails are mere sketches of what great artists working in this genre of music are doing today. Even the better songs on the the album like New Day were entrenched in tired lyrical themes. We literally cringed when we heard Becker deliver the line, "Are you in love are you just in love with the idea of being in love?" Will we play this record again? The answer is: probably not. With so many talented artists doing similar things and actually bringing new sounds to the table, this record isn't really on our list of priorities.