Search - Married Monk :: Belgian Kick

«To start with I?d say that the somehow poetic title of the fourth album of The Married Monk (MM, a delightful acronym?), The Belgian Kick, is meaningless. This enduring nonsense (remember R/O/C/K/Y the previous one) is of an appropriate aestheticism. To be specific, it is a portrait of a bearded refrigerant wearing Ray Ban shades and who seems to be coming from nowhere. I especially love this art of foiling (in this point you have to call it art) the potential listeners of MM. Actually, MM like being where nobody awaits them. Yet, nothing is planned and their only motivation is to go forward even if it implies taking steps aside. Presently reduced to the original trio (a wonderful anglophile singer plus a brilliant DYI photo-graphic designer-musician and a gifted drummer), the band has here recorded its most mature and varied album to date. This diversity allows an incredible balancing act, making a standing jump from an implacable disco-pop hit ("Pretty Lads") to an improbable slow ("Totally Confused") through a rock injunction ("Tell Me Gary") and a swaying ballad ("Love Commander"); add to these a transfiguration of an unknown title of John Barry ("You Only Live Twice") or forgotten Captain Beefheart ("Observatory Crest") which will not go unnoticed ?ici ou ailleurs?. Or else, how to cleverly revisit songs of others - an old habit for MM. And what about the others? MM just don?t care much. Enough to take out from the cupboard the saxophone, the! most disparaged instrument of rock history. If I had to write a chapter on that point I would state that MM is one of the most atypical French bands, and the twelve tracks of this Belgian Kick are a good illustration of it. Belgian people won?t say the contrary. » Antoine Jade