Hailing from Paris, France, the bizarrely titled sextet We Insist! recently unveiled the fourth LP of a chronicled and equally reclusive catalogue. With a small following at home-base and even fewer listeners worldwide, new ears could be quick to assume that a moniker of implied force alludes to some kind of emblematic punk rock romp that's heavy on the garage sound and even heavier on the pedestrian metaphors that come with the amateurs of this trade. While the title of this new album only boosts that theory, which would be an incorrect one, the truth is that it's nearly impossible to define conclusively just what the hell kind of a band We Insist! truly is.
What exactly does that mean? Well besides these guys taking smatterings from the many influences their Myspace site suggests, the sound produced is the expected zeitgeist-dodging indie palette that elitists will spend their last dollars for, while leaving pop-culture patrons scratching their noggins in confusion. Compared to the dominantly instrumental Inner Pond and the expanded experimentation on Crude, Oh! Things are so Corruptible is by far the band's most commercial work to date. Despite newly crafted pop flavor catchiness, there's still a hearty dose of creative eccentricity and lyrical obscurity that guarantees limited (likely none) airplay.
However, for two reasons We Insist! somewhat gets a pass on the weirdness of their vocabulary. Firstly, as far as American English is concerned, the slight language barrier from drummer/lead singer Etienne Gaillochet's accent sometimes makes it a little difficult to understand what he's saying. The intricate, schizophrenic pacing of verses doesn't help in these matters as well. Secondly, and more importantly, the overbearing hooks every song possesses are simply not going to allow even the most skeptic mind to care a whole lot about decipherable linguistics. The ingeniously layered "An Architect," arguably the strongest song on the album, sets an enthralling tempo for the rest of the recording and leaves virtually no qualms of self-indulgence.
Aside from standout tracks amidst tracks that already standout, the record offers the most effective balance of musicianship and style when measured against prior efforts. Inner Pond was controlled by ever-mobile rhythms and saxophone work from Cyrille Mechin and François Wong; Crude was pushed mainly by vocals and verbose passages. This time around, everyone's roles are balanced out to perfection. It's certainly more of a levelheaded venture from beginning to end, with each song dramatically different than the one before it, a trademark that We Insist! has now undeniably mastered. When not being blown away by the tactical strata of "An Architect," the album dishes out unpredictable changeups in "Imperial Catechism," and the quasi-progressive "Early Recollections," tunes that give Traindodge and 31Knots a violent shove to the side. The guttural, psychedelic "Half Arena" can't go with being mentioned as well; the song's bouncy delivery is a surefire pleaser that casts a shadow of Mike Patton. All in all, the entire package aspires to score the full arrival of these six ambitious minds.
With the band touring heavily and now plotting a western release early next year, its anybody's guess whether this gem successfully reaches from pole to pole or remains safely tucked away under in the stacks of CDs held by selfish snobs. In the end, Oh! Things are so Corruptible affirms one certainty: it's a practically flawless album from a tightly knit group of musicians firmly establishing themselves as a top tier of their genre. This is one of the essentials of 2007.
