The Trial of the Century

French Kicks | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 4, 2004)
• Original Release Date: 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vagrant Startime
• ASIN: B00020HAMO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,876 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Following Waves, February 25, 2005

By 

M. Stafford "theboyreviewer" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Trial of the Century (Audio CD)

From my blogspot site "The Boy Reviewer"

I'm not sure why this record isn't being played everywhere. I picked it up last summer and it's been at the top of my heavy rotation playlist ever since. The French Kicks have never made a bad record, but they have never made one quite so good. The Trial Of The Century finds the Kicks exploring new territory, venturing further away from the raw Marcata sound that characterizes their earlier records. The main difference? Harmony and Melody. This is an album that you want to sing along to.

The album opens with "One More Time," an urgent piece of indie-pop gold, driven by a pumping circus organ flanked by a Korgis-esque synth and a throbbing bassline that prods the song onward. The title track is another gem: a sincere, almost duotonic edxample of elegance in simiplicty. "Following Waves" and "Oh Fine" are other noteworthy tracks, beautiful for their directness.

But there aren't any tracks here that don't deliver the goods. The French Kicks don't mess around on this record. The songwriting is superb. The sounds are clean and interesting for the almost old-fashioned lack of special effects. There is no posing, no deliberate snarls, no pointless or intentional obfuscation, and no riding on the coattails of hipper, older, proven cult heros or revisited fads. The Trial Of The Century works for itself. The French Kicks have arrived.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant, May 4, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Trial of the Century (Audio CD)

the french kicks seem to have taken an easy left turn from their previous releases and, to their credit, have managed to cross several genres while maintaining certain themes such as richly layered sounds and clever vocal interplays. smooth as butter, this album will leave you dancing and loving and laughing and crying all at once. to listen to this album is to love it - good luck trying to take it off of the stereo.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give it time...the French Kicks are AMAZING, November 7, 2004

By 

Lex - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Trial of the Century (Audio CD)

If you check out the samples you may think its okay. Get the album, have the patience to play it on repeat 5 times. You'll like it a lot. Listen to it 10 more times, you'll love it. Another listen will turn into 20, 30, and you will realize how beautifully woven this album is, and how talented these guys are. Instant gratification is one thing, but it feels so much better when you've listened to an album so many times and one day you just "get it". I got it, and I haven't stopped listening to the album since I bought it in May. Buy this album.