French Kicks

The Brooklyn bands just don’t know when to leave the party. They’re lingering at the Pabst keg in tight pleather and blasting dopey new wave records. And if you had a nickel for every conversation that included the word “electro,” every last OMD T-shirt on eBay would be yours. French Kicks, however, are notably absent from this irritating party of pop revisionists. The sophisticated songwriting of their first two outings (Young Lawyer EP, One Time Bells) finds their application of Reagan-era beats and synthesizers more astute than the posers down the block. What’s more, the band’s latest 11-song series distinguishes the Kicks as the most tasteful retro fetishists of the latest New York boom. The band manipulates the well-worn vogue of no/new wave sounds and dated drum machines without a whiff of fashionista irony.

You can thank singing drummer Nick Stumpf. When the record kicks off with Stumpf’s “One More Time,” it’s an odd combination of expansive, wistfully harmonized melody and double-time beats. This stunt sets the standard for many of the record’s best tracks (“Oh Fine,” “Don’t Thank Me,” “Yes, I Guess”). But Stumpf’s hat trick as a songwriter, drummer and vocalist is behind the effort’s most clever juxtapositions, arming Trial of the Century with stylish twists and turns. The record’s greatest risks (the synth-trumpet drone of “Was It a Crime,” the genre jumping of “Better Time”) don’t always offer the greatest rewards, but at least you can pick them out of the crowd. And if that crowd doesn’t get the hint soon, the neighbors are going to start complaining.