Octet

Bushies may think that the French are a bunch of girlie-men, but today's French musicians are proving that they can bench-press plenty. Just as Sofia Coppola's favorite Frenchies, Phoenix, easily heft a sound overloaded with disco, country, and rock, Cash and Carry Songs -- the debut album from Paris' Octet -- is a shopping basket stuffed full of musical ideas and balanced on a nimble fingertip. Nothing here sounds particularly heavy; the bulk of the album is easygoing electronic pop buttressed with fidgety beats and smoothed over with dulcet synthesizer tones. "Daddy Long Legs," based upon a blissed-out keyboard and glockenspiel counterpoint, is a slimmed-down version of neo-shoegazers M83, and "Anti-Camp Policy" juggles sunny organ melodies and splintery breakbeats. But "Feels Good to Give Up" throws staccato R&B onto the pile, swaying with Taylor Savvy and Yasmeen Mohammedi's seesawing vocals, and the opening "Hey Bonus," a chockablock construction of harpsichord, hip hop beats, and cutup vocals, sounds like the Beatles in full Magical Mystery Tour mode. A hidden track of full-on synthesizer punk lets Octet really flex its biceps, right before the circus tent comes crashing down.