As of late, I’ve become somewhat obsessed with French pop music of the 1980s. For such a rich culture, the state of French pop music throughout the ages is pretty dire. I mean, take out the current crop of electro-oriented acts (your Daft Punks, your M83s, your Airs, your Justices, etc) and you have:

1) Serge Gainsbourg
2) Telephone
3) Pre-prison Noir Desir

…and that’s about it. Not that I’m suggesting that there’s no good French music (I’m sure many excellent bands are independently represented or unsigned), but on an international basis, France tends to kind of stick with cheese and wine.

Whenever I think of French ’80s pop however, two names immediately come to mind: the aforementioned Telephone (possibly one of my favorite bands ever, mostly for nostalgic sentiments but listen to “Un Autre Monde” and tell me they weren’t on top of their game) and Indochine.

Now, looking back, Indochine were basically just a French hybrid of the Cure and Depeche Mode, and if I were a French youth during their prime, I’d probably think of them in the same way I now think of shitty, mildly offensive bands like the Bravery: i.e. a watered-down version of an greater band or era.

Although, during a recent jaunt on YouTube, it kind of struck me that, regardless of how bad lead singer Nicola Sirkis’ hair is (and continues to be), they wrote some pretty catchy songs, and had a sort of hedonistic, I’m-a-goth-but-fuck-it-it’s-OK vibe that was a little bit more uplifting then what that scene normally has to offer.

Thus, courtesy of some fan on YouTube, I bring you the live video (I think it’s from like 1986) of their hey-maybe-I’m-gay anthem, “Troisieme Sexe”.