Francois and the Atlas Mountains

Charlotte Stones

It seems that there is always endless intrigue surrounding French music, with dance heroes like Daft Punk pioneering what we deem to be a now generic ‘French sound’, it’s difficult to know what to expect from a relatively unknown band like Francois and the Atlas Mountains. But when they appear on several ‘ones to watch’ lists across new music websites, surely they must be exciting, fresh breakaways from the sound that we know.

Francois and the Atlas Mountains truly are more than ‘ones to watch’, they’re more than audible. Singing largely in French evidently creates a barrier between the band and crowd and yet the carefree beauty of the melodies such as that of ‘Les plus beaux’ coupled with contrasting livelier songs like ‘Edge of Town’ provide a comfortable and enjoyable set for the crowd, who reservedly (yet fittingly) show appreciation of Francois’ evident talent throughout the set.

Considering Francois and the Atlas Mountains are not the obvious band to go and see, given the language barrier, they’re more than worth it and the night only showed a small amount of what you can see they have to offer as a band.