Aidan Curran posted on November 22, 2008 18:00
Meet John & Jehn (right), a French couple living in London. Not only do they share romantic moments over tea and scones, but they also make pop music together.
What kind of pop music? Well, let's follow the logic of most reviews we've seen of them in the French press: they're a couple who play guitars and wear shades, often at the same time, and so they are The French Kills or The French Ting Tings.
In fact, John & Jehn jumble up acoustica and indietronica to make an agreeably home-made patchwork of alt-pop which sounds not-much like their perceived English peers. You who don't like them might find it all self-consciously shambolic in the style of Noah And The Whale, with whom they're touring. Yes, John's voice often veers towards the laboured artlessness of NATW singer Charlie Fink.
But they're never as irritating as their English tourmates. In fact, we find them quite charming. Someone told us about them AGES ago, but it's only this week that we simultaneously found their first release and the scrap of paper on which we had scribbled their name.
John & Jehn have just whipped out their first album, self-titled, and it's very nice indeed. With every listen, it elbows its way a notch further up our 2008 Best French Music poll. You can hear bits and pieces from the record on their MySpace page.
A recent single, here's the video for the rather excellent '20LO7' by John & Jehn:
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