Review: Moodoïd - Cité Champagne

Moodoïd's 2014cdebut album Le monde Möö and the singles that preceded it showed that Pablo Padovani had a lot more to offer than just being the guitarist for Melody's Echo Chamber.

Already a significant figure in France's neo psyche scene, Moodoïd's colourful and pleasantly unhinged vision was closer to Prince's Around The World In A Day than garage rock and all the better for it.

With his second album, Cité Champagne I'm pleased to report that Pablo and his pals have lost none of their charm and while it's a glossy and shiny piece, it remains weird at heart.

Musically thing are a little different.  It's glossy and lush and nods towards the 70s, with the easy listening exotica of Kasbah, the Kraftwerkian chrome of Amour Voiture and Planete Tokyo, and the unashamed disco of Reptile.

But while it might on the surface seem a more commercial proposition, it' feels like it's entirely on his own terms. Psychedelic in the broadest sense, unashamed to engage all the senses and refusing to be bound too strictly by any genre conventions. Moodoïd remains a mind expanding trip.