Oh Ah

Stereo Total's 1995 debut album, Oh Ah!, re-released in 2003 by Kill Rock Stars with bonus tracks, introduces the band's shabbily glamorous, multilingual, and multi-culti mix of pop and punk more or less fully formed, albeit slightly messier than the group's later albums. Oh Ah! focuses more on the rougher side of their music, to gloriously all-over-the-place effect on the cute-but-tough punk ye-ye of Miau Miau and the strutting, androgynous Comme un Garton. However, a fair amount of time is also devoted to their wide-ranging pop, spanning the typewriter-punctuated love song Dactylo Rock and the quirky Europop of C'Est la Mort in Oh Ah!'s first two tracks alone. Despite the lovely sheen of Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je M'En Vais, most of the album is less ambitious and polished than Stereo Total's later work, but that doesn't hamper its charms in the slightest. In fact, the cheap keyboards, fuzzy guitars, and rudimentary percussion and production only give Oh Ah! an indie immediacy and friendliness that was missing on later albums like Musique Automatique. A '50s tinge colors songs ranging from the brisk pop of Moi Je Joue to the lovely ballad Morose to the twangy Johnny to the Euro-punkabilly of Souvenir Souvenir; + L'Amour Comme a la Guerre is a very rough take on country. Oh Ah! introduces Stereo Total's tradition of unique covers: while their version of Salt-N-Pepa's Push It might be the most notorious of the songs they reworked, their {lo-fi}, Eurotrash disco version of KC & the Sunshine Band's Get Down Tonight and their sweet, simple rendition of the Tee Set's Ma Belle Amie (known here as Belami) are just as witty, if not more so. A sprawling album, Oh Ah! also features directions the group rarely repeated, such as the spare, bluesy Dans le Parc, which is no less affecting because of its difference from the rest of Stereo Total's work. The bonus tracks on the 2003 edition of the album only make it even more sprawling, but fortunately the band's B-sides are nearly as good as its album tracks. Carte Postale is a cover of the Rivieras' early-'60s classic California Sun set in sunny St. Tropez; Avec Ma Valise is probably one of the only {country-pop} songs sung en Frantais; and the version of Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je M'En Vais with Alex Chilton is very different than, but just as good as, the album track. Still a remarkably fresh album, Oh Ah! is an exciting debut, and a starting point from which Stereo Total would just keep getting better. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide