The Teenagers - Reality Check

It was only a matter of time before Serge Gainsbourg's love children started appearing from the cracks in the Parisian pavements. OK, so the link may be tenuous: they're um, French, and on opening track Homecoming, they sing about 'fucking' quite graphically. Perhaps though they have more in common with some other fellow countrymen. Their dreamy, synth-driven pop brings to mind French electro-shoegazers M83, if they ever took to scoring an episode of Skins. However, Reality Check's vacuous pop-culture references, masquerading as intelligent, witty, urbane dissections of teenage life, become increasingly cloying and aren't as clever or funny as singer Quentin Delafon obviously thinks they are. Furthermore, all the best tunes, such as the admittedly glorious New Order-esque Feeling Better or the hands-aloft euphoria of Streets Of Paris, prop up the first half of Reality Check, making it seem as though, like many of their namesakes, The Teenagers have blown their load pretty quickly. [Darren Carle]