Everybody Was In the French Resistance Now is the new band from Eddie Argos, lead singer from sadly departed art rock heroes Art Brut. For those who don’t know, Art Brut are probably the coolest band ever to have emerged from the art rock scene.

Their repertoire includes such classics as: ‘Formed a band’, ‘Bang Bang Rock and Roll’, ‘Emily Kane’, and ‘Moving to LA’. According to legend, early on stage histrionics included Eddie vacuuming on stage, Eddie escaping out of a sack, and various strange liaisons between Eddie and audience members.

So it’s fair to say Eddie is a man with enough charisma to make Tom Jones sweat and a delivery sharper than Simon Cowell’s tongue, he is a genetic fusion of Kenneth Williams and Oscar Wilde. He also is not a rock and roll faker; he actually has moved to LA, and probably did date a girl called Emily Kane, and well, he did form a band.

Everybody Was In The French Resistance Now has Eddie teaming up with his girlfriend Dyan Valdes from the Blood Arm, an alternative rock band from LA. FIXING THE CHARTS is their attempt at ‘correcting the mistakes of pop songs past’, and sees them ‘responding’ to various pop classics from Avril Lavigne’s ‘Girlfreind’ to Kayne West’s ‘Gold Digger’, to that song all those Liverpool fans always seem to sing when they’re playing rubbish, ‘You’ll never walk alone’, which seems to be ringing out at Anfield quite a lot lately.

The general tone is far more pop than Art Brut, there are less noisy guitars here, just organ sounds, piano, brass instruments, and some lush vocal harmonies from Dyan. It’s well produced and fun, not laugh out loud funny, just witty and entertaining. The first track CREEQUE ALLIES is basically the history of the French Resistance read out to music, which is a bit odd to be honest, but you get used to it, and by the time BILLIE’S GENES unravels the story of a sibling searching for their genetic benefactor, the weirdness doesn’t seem out of place.

Musically there’s a lot going on. There are plenty of melodic guitar parts and funky choruses, using a wide range of orchestral instruments, the arrangements are often imaginative and interesting. G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. (You Know I've Got A) is a great pop song about a deluded stalker who won’t take no for an answer, the chorus sung by Dyan is really sweet and catchy and I couldn’t quite remove it from my head after listening to it, it reminded me of Kenickie a fair amount. BILLIE’S GENES opens with 70’s style disco and has a thumping bass line and a blazing sting section. (I'm So) Waldo P. Emerson JonES has a funky Beatles like piano riff and builds up pace with more strings and a brass accompaniment. WALK ALONE sees Eddie musing about standing on his own, being a functioning adult ‘It’s  ok to walk alone, I can do this on my own, It’s First Blood: Part II and I’m Stallone’.

SUPERGLUE reminded me the most of Art Brut, using cool distorted guitars, it’s one of the shortest songs on the album, and has a really cute Dandy Warhol’s like chorus. ‘Nothing lasts forever without superglue, hold yourself together with superglue’ urges Eddie. Think Twice (It's Not Alright) has a similar cutesy vibe, and He's a "Rebel" makes great use of Dyan’s vocals and is a standout track on the album.
Dyan has a sugary, cool nonchalant vocal style, and it fits well with Eddie, who tends to just sing in one vocal range. The pair create some fun 60s and 70’s style tunes: with splashes of Beach Boys, The Beatles, Neil Diamond, mixed up with modern indie.

So this album is the only place you’re going to hear songs about stalking, the French Resistance, face book, Rambo, the Godfather, and superglue. It’s all the only place your going to hear Eddie and Dyan do their thing together, so for that reason it’s worth a listen. Because they go well together and create unique, entertaining music that manages to mix grungy indie guitar with more traditional and older styles of music. The result is an oddity, but an enthralling oddity, that will leave you in a better mood and wanting to do something a bit silly.