On their debut album Reality Check, The Teenagers espouse the hormonal tribulations of that eponymous age range with a twisted Parisian/Californian adolescent perspective. As much as we all love a good stolen kiss in the back of the movie theater, basing an entire album around the subject of teen lust sets the bar high. On the opening track and lead single "Homecoming," singer Quentin Delafon recaps his recent one-night-stand on a trip to San Diego. The exchange comprises part of a male-female half-spoken duet between Delafon and a girl trying too hard to sound like an archetypal American cheerleader. His perspective on the encounter is one of momentary lust; the cheerleader professes she is in love. No one wants to hear Grease again, much less served to you on a platter over ELO synths.
The album's defining, and most troubling, aspects are these overtly tacky, half-spoken lyrics. And it doesn't help that it's packed to the gills with them. The cheerleader implores him "don't forget to send me friend request," to which Delafon throws down a sneering "As if." Similarly, "French Kiss" opines: "I get you a vodka Red Bull, I lure you in the kitchen, it's quite smoky in there, have a seat, we'll have another drink. God it's already 4 a.m., and we're getting tired. perfect timing for a French kiss on your soft lips." If the band is poking fun at themselves and the general teenage population, they beat you over the head with a unitary shtick in order to do so.
As a package, it's like Art Brut and Blink-182 combined forces and turned lo-fi together in the French countryside. It's fun if you get past the kitsch, but why bother? The real crime lies in the intriguing song structures on songs like "Make It Happen," "Streets of Paris" and "Feeling Better" that go to waste. In an age where bands regurgitate melodies and attempt to differentiate themselves with lyrics, The Teenagers seem to be doing the opposite. No amount of their musing, humorous or trite, can stop me from wanting to steal their melodies and give them to someone, you know, better.
