Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains - Piano Ombre

A lot of the descriptions for Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains’ previous album ‘E Volo Love’ – and their first for Domino – used words like ‘charming’ and ‘breezy.’ They had a point, yet as Frànçois himself noted at the time, after releasing a handful of sugary sweet albums for King Creosote’s Fence label, ‘There’s more muscle in what I do now’. ‘Piano Ombre’ shows another work out has been undergone.

Sure there’s the same, er, breezy pop tones, yet there’s a honed, muscular edge, a sense that these songs have been worked into shape. Part of the reason may be that this is his first album recorded in a studio proper, and it shows. First single ‘La Vérité’ maintains the charm but its disco chops are toned and the percussion is more powerful.

You see it on opener ‘Bois’ too which builds into something bigger from a shuffling opener to more of a stomp while ‘The Way to The Forest’ sounds like an Animal Collective Jr – in the very best sense, it’s all of the fun and none of that noodly tomfoolery. But Frànçois hasn’t left his heart at home: ‘La Fille Aux Cheveux de Sole’ is a piano led beauty.

‘Piano Ombre’ means to see things in a positive light and sonically this album is all about brightness. And, though it veers a little too close to becoming slight and twee - see ‘Fancy Foresight’ and its ‘I’ve got a new life and it’s starting with you’ - fortunately it manages to remain on the right side of the line. ‘Summer of the Heart’ mixes African rhythms, English lyrics and a Bombay Bicycle Club sound to perfection. And the keyboard squelch of ‘Reveil Inconnu’ could have been produced by Air.

Perhaps his current line up of Atlas Mountains have helped him peak. As closing track ‘Bien Sûr’ builds into a Cut Copy disco frenzy to end you realise that, of course, this is his best album yet – a kaleidoscope of charming sounds.