The trio comes from Lyon, France, a city well known for bringing to life a high amount of great punk bands over the past decades. “Vie Ordinaire” is FAUX DEPART second album, a record made of songs that will get stuck in your head from the first time you hear them. Basically, it’s melodic but incisive punk-rock with a great sense of songwriting and sarcastically clever french lyrics.
Our take: Vie Ordinaire is the 3rd release Sorry State has carried from Lyon, France’s Faux Départ, and it’s their best one yet. Faux Départ reminds me of North Carolina’s Personality Cult. Both bands combine Marked Men-style power-pop / melodic punk with post-punk angularity, and both have grown more sophisticated in their pop songwriting with each subsequent release. Also like Personality Cult, Faux Départ makes their recordings sound great, with a balanced mix that finds space for every instrument’s subtleties to come through while still maintaining a high energy level and a sense of rawness. Faux Départ is equally adept with a jerky, post-punk-influenced tune like “Le Casse” as they are with the closing track “Fantôme,” which offers a dramatic series of powerful melodies and great backing vocals that add to the song’s climatic feel. Fans of Marked Men, Personality Cult, and similar bands on labels like Dirtnap should give this a spin. (sorry state)
