Album Review: Yelle – “Complètement Fou”

By: Daniel Gerichter (@ZenDonut) –

Let’s be real here: club kids don’t exactly hold lyrics on a pedestal. They don’t care whether Calvin Harris and AVICII are telling a story or adapting verbal nuance. They want beats, heavy and dense; moody or mood-enhancing samples and maybe (and this is purely a bonus) words that aren’t total wharrgarbl.

With that all said, French dance trio Yelle are brilliant at the first two criteria, and (with a bit of help from Google translate), just as good at the last one. Their third studio album Complètement Fou brings their mastery of the genre beside contemporaries like Daft Punk.

After filling the opening slot for Katy Perry’s 2011 tour, the group (consisting of namesake vocalist Julie Budet, beatmakerGrandMarnier aka Jean-François Perrier) and Tanguy Destable (aka Tephr) signed onto pop kingmaker Dr. Luke’s (TaioCruz, Katy Perry, Pink, Rihanna) Kemosabe records. Years after overseeing hits for just about everyone in pop music, Dr. Luke finally came on board to handle the album’s production.

The result? Just like their previous efforts Safari Disco Club and Pop-up, Yelle brings sparkly, pixie vocals and club-trouncing beats to every track. The main differences here are a newfound diversity in sound, with metallic, alien-sounding samples, and in style, with a variety of tempos on display. Yelle may have caught a bit of flack for moving away from the synth-driven style of Pop-up, but they have found something more organic here. Of course, the disco-rockers are present and accounted for, with tracks like “Un Jour Viendra” and “Moteur action”, but the group’s clearly willing to try some newer tempos, like with the dubstep-influenced opening track “Bouquet Final”, the differences are nuanced, they’re more industrial, more alien.  Dr. Luke’s influence can be heard everywhere on this record, from the guitars on “Les soupirs et les refrains” to the supremely weird blips and bloops of the album’s title track.

With Complètement Fou, Yelle have shown just how quickly their progression as artists has been. Where their previous entries were elevated club bangers, Complètement Fou is evolved and more timeless.

Essential Tracks: “Bouquet Final”, “Complètement Fou”, and “Les soupirs et les refrains”