The Teenagers Reality Check by: Thomas Mendelovitis Thu:01-May-08 Label: Beggars Banquet Year: 2008 WB rating 85 out of 100

There will always be those who will try to tell you how music should be. Labels, media, bookers and fandom: they all act together in a feedback loop, simultaneously defining trends as well as the passé. Some bands will not care and all the trademarks of ‘good’ music like taste, honesty, originality and verve will fly out the window. Paris-bred, London-based The Teenagers are one of these bands; curiously trendy but also extremely abrasive. Unlike other products of middle-class musical ennui such as noise, death-metal or ironic rap (which are intended to shock in as direct a way as possible), The Teenagers choose a beautifully melodic electro-shoegaze vessel within which to wrap their ‘fuck off’ philosophy. With spoken word verses detailing exaggerated teen-drama topics, it is the lyrics of The Teenagers that disguise discontent with their boring 21st Century fate.

The Teenagers’ rise to fame is ironically a product of this boredom. Their genius is to transcend it. Having been friends for 10 years, the trio of Quentin Delafon (vocals), Dorian Dumont (guitar/keys) and Michael Szpiner (bass) one night decided to form a band in 2007. They wrote a song and, needing somewhere to put it, created a MySpace. A couple of months later, after one show in Paris, they played the sold-out Merok Records showcase in London, released two singles and the Homecoming EP, and toured the US. Now, in 2008, they have an album out called Reality Check and more touring throughout North America and Europe. Thankfully, their music is equally as exciting as their climb to the top. From the band name, to the artwork, the lyrics and the music, everything works in perfect alignment. At the same time hilarious and romantic, Reality Check constructs a delightful meta-narrative of pop-cultural youth.

In an album of standout tracks, opener ‘Homecoming’ sets the tone. A wash of gauzy atmosphere and electro-lite drumming creates a lush pop backdrop for Delafon’s vocal: “Last week I flew to San Diego to see my aunty/on day one I met her hot stepdaughter/she’s a cheerleader, she’s a virgin and she’s really tanned… on day two I fucked her and it was wild/she’s such a slut”. Initially jarring, with each subsequent listen Delafon’s wit and superb delivery become addictive; like that guitar solo or soaring chorus you know is just around the corner, The Teenagers build suspense through their narratives. Told with deadly accuracy and a charming French accent somehow reminiscent of Sacha Baron-Cohen’s ‘Bruno’ (it’s hard to imagine it being pulled off in an Australian, American or British accent), every song has a precise target and sets about dismantling it from the get go.

While the songs may be juvenile in subject matter, the perspectives are anything but. On ‘Sunset Beach’, Delafon tells of his Fender Jazzmaster being stolen by a girl (who “works in fashion/yeah, she’s an accountant for GAP”) he has taken home. The chorus runs “this fucking bitch deserves to die” but the subtext is that he is the real arsehole. The clue: “so I said ‘do you want to have a shower before you leave?’”. While not always this subtle, the intelligence of The Teenagers more or less shines through and gives Reality Check the edge it needs to surpass the pitfalls of silly cultural references and jaded attitudes. Just like a comedian using self-deprecation, or the earnest balladeer who uses raw emotion, The Teenagers bond with the listener through intellect and knowing coolness, which succeed in displacing the potentially alienating effects of their ‘whatever’ posturing.

Soulless or sassy, your enjoyment of Reality Check is purely up to how much of it you can take. The songs lack diversity, relying on the same – albeit effective – formula of spoken verse and sing along chorus. But when they succeed, the results are as catchy and as clever as anything heard in years.

From one perspective, satire is a self-destroying project. The fact that they decided to commit these lyrics to tape/hard-drive/CD/‘whatever’, and will perform them night after night, makes them almost as bad as the subjects they are lampooning. In a sense, you can’t transcend the pettiness of life with more of it, even if it is parodied. On the other hand, posterity is overrated. The Teenagers seem to grasp this when they sing about 90210, pilfer a riff from New Order’s ‘Ceremony’ (on the similarly uplifting ‘Feeling Better’) but simultaneously pepper their songs with contemporary references. Nostalgia is overrated too, and The Teenagers are as fresh as their name suggests. As such, it will perhaps be even funnier to see how their contemporary references (vodka/red bull, Nike caps, Scarlett Johansson) date. All in all though, meaning something is better than meaning nothing whatsoever.