La Femme Leans Into a Dark New Wave Sound on Rock Machine
Graphic by Sofia Giarrusso
By Izzie Claudio
This past Friday, La Femme released their sixth studio album, Rock Machine. The album cover features a woman with blue skin, a perfect hairdo, and a surge of electricity pulsing through her head—an ‘80s inspiration already present visually. La Femme is a rock band from France, and since their debut in 2013, they’ve maintained a consistent sound. Dabbling in a mix of psychedelic rock and new wave and always enjoying synthesizers alongside electric guitar. Their monotonous vocals cast a wave of mystery à la Depeche Mode and Bauhaus. The sound of the ‘80s flows through each album and a darker new wave sound finds its way into their newest project.
Rock Machine begins with “Clover Paradise,” a tune that could fit right in with the new wave giants of the ‘80s. The hypnotizing synthesizer and the steady beat of the drum machine ground the song in a dark place of intrigue. La Femme urges you to join their “paradise,” luring you deeper into this mysterious world. The song inhabits a dark club with flashing lights and no sense of how long you've been dancing. You don’t know the faces around you, but you’ve all been taken over by the power of the music. La Femme released “Clover Paradise” as a single last month, the song capturing the energy of the entire album: dark and mysterious, yet energetic and addicting.
Rock Machine builds on the idea of letting go and moving forward into an uncertain future. In life, there are moments of high energy pushing you forward and times when everything is shrouded in darkness. La Femme captures this constant change of rhythm that paints life. Change is scary but exciting, unknown but intriguing. By the middle of the album, the tempo revs up in “Sweet Babe.” An electronic voice of a woman shouts “Wait! / I think something’s just happened / They kiss.” Immediately, the song accelerates into a fast beat; a deep thumping drum machine melts into a symphony of synthesizing. “Sweet Babe” is yet another tune that can easily be blasted over the speakers in an 80s new wave club. This song fits right in surrounded by dark makeup, black lipstick, and teased hair. It isn’t your typical dance beat, you’ve got to thrash your body around. La Femme’s world continues—you don’t know how to move your body to it, but you must.
A journey in drum machines moves onwards. As we launch into the back half of Rock Machine, we land on “I Believe in Rock and Roll,” a triumphant, electric song that explodes with a glorious chorus of voices. “I was thinking about the people / The people who believe in nothing / Because you must believe in something / And me, I believe in rock and roll!” This is a tune of celebration, possibly even an homage to the music that guides La Femme into their unique sound. It’s a shift in tone for the album, still attempting to lure listeners into their world. “So why don’t you come with us?” they ask before an electric guitar comes tearing in.
As the album comes to a close, La Femme returns to the dark tone they established at the start. “Goodbye Tonight” is deceptively upbeat, but the lyrics are devastating.“The scene takes place in a park / Someone is crying alone / Unnoticed by all who pass by / In the deepness of his life, he finds himself adrift / And this is the tumultuous reverie of his mind.” Essentially, this is a song about wanting to die. Quite a shift from the hope that remained at the beginning of the album. There is still an air of intrigue from the dichotomy between sound and words. A song about death still has a catchy beat; La Femme wants to increase the sense of macabre that paints the whole album. Rock Machine is spooky, in an exciting way.
The album finishes with a haunting ballad, with a circus-like lilt. In “Amazing,” there’s an air of reminiscing, which quickly shifts into one last grasp of hope. This hope includes the listeners: “We all are amazing.” It’s a beautiful end to a mysterious album, capturing a final note of dark intrigue. A swell of instruments creates a giant atmosphere of sound. The album opens and closes with epic worldbuilding, beginning with a descent into the addicting chaos of a dark club and finishing with an ascent into heavenly light. The listener returns to a world of hope, the true paradise, after a journey through a mysterious, cold atmosphere.
Rock Machine oozes with emotion, and their intense inspiration from ‘80s new wave expertly curates an exploration of dark vs. light, despair vs. hope. La Femme knows what their sound is, and they’ve pushed deeper into their tone with Rock Machine.