Tahiti 80

Fosbury (The Militia Group)
by Tim Den

Daaaaawwwww… another one down, folks. French pop cult heroes Tahiti 80 have decided to follow-up their excellent EP A Piece of Sunshine with an album full of wanna-be Americanisms. And I don’t mean Americanisms like The Strokes or Death Cab For Cutie, I’m talking about mainstream R&B shit like Justin Timberlake and Beyonce. Instead of further exploring and modernizing their instinctively French sensibilities (an act almost carried through splendidly on their last full-length, Wallpaper For the Soul), they’ve opted for dumber chord progressions, primitive rhythms and samples, and cheesy as hell hooks. Even when they try to write a rocker (“Chinatown”), the feeling you get is that they’re constantly looking about for someone to tell them “yes, this is what will make you huge in America!” What made Tahiti 80 stand out from left-of-center pop bands – American, French, or otherwise – was that they combined all of their influences and came up with something that sounded like Phoenix writing ’70s film scores for Air. Not the most original of sounds in the world, but certainly delightful and possessing a spin of their own. Now? Say hello to Fosbury, aka any crap you hear on the radio.
(www.themilitiagroup.com)