Kalte Lust: "Pride is your Consolation"

My first impressions is there this band has a very militant sound for a French band. This lightens up considerable when they focus on more vocal oriented songs. Not a total Siouxsie rip off makes this refreshing, even if their minimal sound is thin at time. The vocals at the chorus work well and the break down at the end gives the first real opening song a more organic feel. Sounds like they might eve n be using real drums."Story of the Eye" finds that they are not overly married to sticking to punk rock basics , as the melodic nature is more along the lines of indie rock to the song. When the bass takes over things get more Siouxsie. Are they more Siouxsie than Savages? The jury is still out , but they are coming from a similar place though much less straight up rocking as Savages.

Despite leaning into more of a Siouxsie direction, the band really sounds the best when slithering at a slower , darker creep. Baritone male vocals come into to harmonize on the chat that runs through  "Vergliech uns beide". The ethereal creep of the effected guitar continues it's hypnotic float through the album. The lead singer is pretty versatile, she sounds convincing into more alto spoken vocal parts and jumping back into her more emotive voice. These guys take time to allow the songs to find groove and dynamics rather than that last Arctic Flowers album that ran by in a one- two - three- go. The first song that doesn't catch me on first listen is "Unter beobachtung", it seems to play off  themes they have already visited and doesn't feel as inspired as the songs before it.

Synths show up at the beginning of "Blind Relief" to not only switch things up, but add a darker element. It  seems to inspire the playing all around . Their drummer is really spot on in this song and add smart accents throughout the album. The bass at times could stand to be more forward in the mix to give it more of a Cure like sound. The male vocals actually come in for a verse on the closing which is the first track that has more of a punk edge to it.

Overall this album is a breath of fresh air in the post- punk revival that seemed to be stagnating by mid-year in 2014.I'll give this an 8.5 for now and see how it grows on me . It's more original than many of their predecessors , but I am a little leery as to how much play time it will get, which is my barometer, if you just love female fronted post -punk then go ahead and make it a 9.