French For Cartridge - Liquorice

A fair while ago we had a preview of some indie-upstarts French For Cartridge, and they’ve followed up the single release with a full-blown album. It’s been sitting in my to-do pile for far longer than it should have been.

I never did like liquorice, unless it was cherry flavoured. I like this though.

Since I was familiar with the opener ‘oooh!’, I skipped forward to track 2 - ‘Loosening the Structures’, and was greeted with a charming guitar-led song that wouldn’t have been out of place on the About a Boy soundtrack.. Not that it’s a Badly Drawn Boy ripoff though; the clever combination of the darker bassier sounds with the upbeat feel harks back to the lighter moments on the Smashing Pumpkins’ mighty Gish.

…and is that some political statements in amonst it all I hear, with lines like ‘It’s your patriotic duty to spend?’

This is a delightful oddity of an album, with all the integrity of an indie heavyweight, but all the jovial frivolity of a European circus. They’re not trying too hard to be ‘weird’, or to bother fitting into any particular style or direction, which is refreshing. A casual meander into the world of sound. Brilliant.

Catch them on June the 10th supporting Stereo Total at 93 Feet East in London, and for those of you into vinyl, there’ll be a lovely release of Liquorice coming up in June/July time.

French for Cartridge Myspace for more info.