Artist: Les Negresses Vertes Album: Mlah

Les Negresses Vertes are an eclectic eight-piece French band that released this exuberant debut in 1988. There are so many ideas on this record! Mlah fairly buzzes with dynamism and street-savvy brio, with accordions and horns bursting out of the mix. Complex and serpentine rhythms undergird the affair, and the band at this stage seems rather a Gallic counterpoint to the Pogues, with bold, almost shouted “gang vocal” choruses (and an even more self-destructive frontman whose luck eventually ran out).