Avions' Loner is the third full-length from a group active since 1982, released through Ligature with help from Les Briques du Néant, Tous en Tong, Bad Health Records, Teenage Hate Records and Napalm Treez. Its reference points are clear enough: nineties indie pop, pop punk and the loose, slightly scruffy feel usually attached to slacker rock. The group is linked across Brussels, Lyon and Paris, giving the album a place in that French underground pop network without sanding off its rough edges.
There are twelve tracks here, with titles that jump from “Bogus” and “Raised in the Darkest Forest, in the secret of the Black Arts” to “Van Halen”, “Moms & Punks” and “Satan Only Knows”. That mix of blunt jokes, adolescent menace and everyday detail fits the record's pop-punk frame. Antoine Nouel recorded and mixed Loner at Decines Carwash United, with Mathieu Gaud handling mastering, and Avions made the artwork. Anyone drawn to nineties guitar pop, punk's shorter route to a chorus, or French bands with a knowingly unpolished edge should find plenty to try here, especially at a name-your-price release that also comes on cassette and vinyl.
