(Cooking Vinyl/Shock)

Eddie Argos delivers a stunningly goofy concept album

Everything you need to know about this album can be found in its genesis story. Eddie Argos – the scrappy, charming semi-singer from Art Brut – and his girlfriend, Dyan Valdés, were listening to Martha Reeves & The Vandellas’ track Jimmy Mack and decided that they’d like to rewrite the song from Jimmy’s perspective. This soon led to a whole album of ‘response songs’ in which the perceived ills of pop music are righted, recorded under the improbable name Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now! Despite its complicated genesis, it’s an essentially okay premise for a concept album, but one that runs the risk of being too much of an inside joke. Quite how much you’ll enjoy this album depends on your opinion of Argos, who plays the straight-talking naïf so well that he can come across as remarkably pedestrian (as in the album’s opening couplet, “When the Nazis marched on Paris / The French were quite embarrassed” – no, really?). First single G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. (You Know I’ve Got A) is a great slice of classic pop wrapped in a semi-serious message about the propensity for female starlets to try and steal other women’s boyfriends; the very title of Billie’s Genes elicits a chuckle; meanwhile, My Way (Is Not Always The Best Way) takes a funny premise but sucks the life out of it in its realisation. Fixin’ The Charts has as many misses as hits, but that doesn’t prevent it from being a whole lot of irreverent fun.

***½

CHAD PARKHILL

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