Psycho Tropical Berlin

Editors’ Notes Joining the French duo Liminanas in nurturing France’s rock sensibilities, Le Femme—a quintet with female and male vocals—take the retro sounds of ‘60s French and psychedelic pop out of the garage and right into the living room: roll up the rugs! Psycho Tropical Berlin is aptly named, mixing as it does wildly divergent styles and sounds. Guitars drip with surf-rock reverb on tunes like “Sur la Planche 2013” and “Interlude,” noir-infused shadows color “Hypsoline,” and vintage ye-ye glee courses through “La Femme.” “Packshot” and “Antitaxi” even pack a new wave giddiness into the mix, with pulsing bass lines and gurgling keyboards driving infectious dance rhythms into the ground. Like any decent borrower of sounds from past rock deities, La Femme dip into the Modern Lovers playbook; the keyboard tones and progressions in “It’s Time to Wake Up 2023” and “Nous Etions Deux” are wonderfully rich with the soul of Modern Lovers classics like “Roadrunner.” Sixty minutes makes a hefty release these days, but it’s hard to say what could have been left out of this delightful, exuberant debut.