In “the cure”, Olivia sings the tremendous couplet “Used to play a game in my head when I’d date a guy / Tally up the girls that he fucked ‘til I started to cry” and she sings it softly as she matches an indie rock backing and indie twee music video to it. This rock swells and grows as she does over until it crests in self-acceptance. This is why you seem pretty sad is exceptional. She matches music to emotion masterfully and so crafts a spectacular narrative across the entire album.
Her flexibility allows for this. “the cure” could be a Phoebe Bridgers cut, “stupid song” shows her in Taylor mode, “expectations” draws from Madonna. When she brings in Robert Smith for “what’s wrong with me,” their vocal harmony is a pleasure.
I do wish however that she was able to transcend her influences. She keeps each song within genre lines and none of her forays truly approach the best of each of their respective classes. She often comes close though. I love the riot grrl of “my way” and her caustic lines are expertly placed in her narrative of the shaping and reshaping of her own personality. “u+me = <3” is very well crafted pop and “I know everybody changes but I hope we don’t / Carve our names into the carseat leather” are great lines.
More saliently, does it make sense to quibble over whether the songs are genre-bending when the album moves so freely? Does it make sense to say that the songs are merely very good when the album is exceptional? It is no matter, for you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love is truly an exceptional album.
Even if you haven’t yet heard their music, you might have seen clips of Angine de Poitrine around social media already; their polka-dotted, masked presence is hard to mistake for anything else. In the same vein as Daft Punk and Glass Beams, Angine de Poitrine materialized from the outset with their own lore – the stated story here being that they are a pair of space-faring, music-loving aliens called Khn and Klek de Poitrine.
So, behind the mystery, what are they really? At the heart of it, Angine de Poitrine is a math rock band that deals primarily in microtones – the notes outside of the traditional 12-note Western system. The duo combines the inherent jaggedness of microtonal music with a phenomenal sense of melody and rhythm to result in a free-flowing yet utterly groovy cacophony of sounds; think alien jazz-rock. Throw in the looping skills of the guitarist-slash-bassist plus their inimitable visual presentation, and you’ve got yourself a viral band indeed.
The duo released their first album, Vol.I, back in 2024, and are now back with Vol. II in April of this year. Over a thirty-six minute run-time on Vol.II, Angine de Poitrine take us on a kaleidoscopic, frenetic journey unlike anything else.
“Fabienk” opens with the sparse squawks of what could be an alien spaceship; gradually, layer by layer, the song unfolds into a hard-charging banger that could, say, soundtrack the boss level of an indie video game. “Mata Zyklek” is a firecracker of a rock song – one could easily imagine Cadillac using this for new commercials in place of Led Zep’s “Rock and Roll”.
With “Utzp”, the aliens go in a totally different direction: a simple melody set against staccato upbeats could remind the listener of a Greek wedding song, or perhaps Eastern European polka. “Sarniezz” opens with a thick bass riff that eventually takes center stage, shaping and molding the guitar and drums.
The psychedelic “Yor Zarad” masters the art of hypnotic repetition, interspersed with just enough melody to imbue the track with a sense of irrepressibility. “Angor”, the final track of the album (although we found that the order of listening doesn’t really matter), utilizes switches in rhythmic pattern and a mesmerizing microtonal melody that snakes into your brain and keeps you locked in.
Just as a side note (and this is purely a matter of opinion), Vol. II does get a little overwhelming in the second half of the album, especially if one is listening all the way through; there’s just too many ideas, snippets, concepts that the band brings up through the interminable layers, leading to a sort of mental fatigue trying to process everything. However, your mileage may vary; perhaps you’ll listen to Vol. II and wish for a Vol. III that’s twice as long.
Aside from the microtones and the masks, there’s another reason that Angine de Poitrine went viral this year. The band came into the limelight in early 2026 with an extremely well-received KXEP set, at the same time when AI had started looming, like a Death Star birthed by evil billionaires, over anything creative or human. Ironically, this duo of so-called aliens became a symbol of anti-AI – because no AI model could ever produce something as creative, random and unusual as Angine de Poitrine.
@anginedepoitrineofficiel have been breaking the internet for weeks now. Is surreal art and music like this going to proliferate in a world where anyone can create music and media with the push of a button? Is it a coincidence that this is happening at the same time as AI-produced music is going mainstream? Are there echoes of past art movements such as Impressionism, Abstract Art, Dadaism? #AI#anginedepoitrine#aimusic#genai#arthistory#arthistorytiktok#microtonal#artificialintelligence
As with all well-crafted instrumental music, this album stays with you. Angine de Poitrine are experts at weaving in intricate melodies, counter to and in between motifs that they’ve been building for some time. It’s those melodies that stay with you and keep you coming back for yet another listen.
I find myself surprisingly emotional listening to The Boys of Dungeon Lane. The best of the Beatles albums, Revolver, turns 60 this year and the best of the Beatles will turn 84 and somehow Sir Paul is still making music. He’s more bluesy than in his youth and his rock is harder and his voice is rougher. He’s often searching for the beauty of his truly great melodies and he never finds them and the rock never gets as complicated as one would like. It doesn’t matter. This is Paul McCartney, making music that he clearly enjoyed making and that I truly enjoyed hearing. This is a delight.
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