I must admit that I had not heard anything about this band from Paris before, and their name was also unfamiliar to me. However, when I received the review offer with the description “Louis Lingg and the Bombs are goddamn punk-rock-garage-pop-anarcho saviors of the 2 and half minute pop song,” I was quite interested.
The album is called “Alphabet of a Revolution,” and this theme is revisited throughout the entire album. In total, four songs are titled accordingly (Alphabet of the Revolution Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Final Exam).
I particularly liked the way this theme was incorporated throughout the album, as it gives the whole thing a kind of red thread. According to the afmusic homepage, the album is supposed to be the soundtrack for the anti-capitalist camps in Paris, which is clearly reflected in the lyrics.
The description of the music (see above) hits the nail on the head. It is a colorful mix of different music styles, including punk, hardcore, garage, but also a lot of synthesizer usage. In my opinion, the focus lies in the punk/hardcore area, although a lot of emphasis is also placed on catchy, earworm melodies. The singer's voice somewhat resembles Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Off), and the switch between female and male vocals makes the whole album really refreshing and keeps it from becoming boring. In a few places, I don't like the singing due to too much auto-tune, which might just be me, as I have always hated this effect. However, it doesn't have to be used when you can bring in such good vocal performances in a large part of the songs.
The album cover is stylish, black and white, and not too overloaded. I have always been a fan of good artwork, and this one is completely successful!
The entire album is available as a free download (why no physical copies?), and for a few bucks, you can get it along with two extra songs on iTunes, etc. Overall, it is definitely worth the money, which you actually only pay for the two extra songs. However, I don't particularly like the two extra songs, which are remixes of tracks from the album. For my taste, it is a good album that combines punk rock/hardcore/garage with current pop trends.
