La Femme: Mystère review – alluring French indiepop

For the non-Francophone, at least, La Femme’s second album lives up to its title. Mystère – delivered in blank, affectless voices, by male and female voices – is an alluring grab-bag of styles, from synthpop to surf-rock to Stereolabish indie motorik, to near-baroque guitar picking, to faux-Morricone western soundtracks, to an almost pastoral psychedelia. The stylistic range is wide enough to keep Mystère varied, and to stave off boredom – despite the album being about 20 minutes too long – but its parameters are also logical enough that each song sounds like it follows naturally from the last, rather than being a jarring leap. Goodness knows what they’re singing about, though that’s very much my fault rather than theirs; in any case, it doesn’t matter when the music this expertly conceived: it’s recognisably the work of an indie band, but not one constrained by preconceived notions of what indie must be, and it’s well worth your time.