Photo credit: Mathieu Fortin
The characterful project boasts singles ‘Time To Time’, ‘All Yours Now’ and ‘Teenage Dreams’, which have amassed a total of over 200,000 streams, impressing fans with emotional melodies paired with irresistible grooves.
French indie rock outfit Kids Return deliver an album that casts its gaze back on the golden musical traditions, and yet could not have arrived at any other time, for the band or the world. This is a pop culture legacy and a statement of modern identity contemporary music fans do not want to miss.
Promised by the album’s title, ‘First Choice’ is a time machine. Immediate and unrelenting, the energetic opener transports the listener to a season of youth, dancing and optimism. It is the summer of ‘1997’, when Britpop dominated the radio; melodies looking hopefully towards the new millennium while remembering fondly the upbeat, beachy power pop of the 1960s. With an instant hook, jangly guitars and a nostalgic vocal, the album kicks off with a song that is soon to be on every listener’s summer playlist. From the band themselves: “It captures the impulsive, carefree nature of teenage love.”
At the heart of the album stands ‘My Hero’, a poignant tribute to a lost loved one, where a soaring melody and feverish rhythm let an intimate nostalgia transpire. It captures a moment of spontaneity, of real emotions felt and not overthought. The video for ‘My Hero’ (created by Alice Gariepy and Tara-Jay Bangalter) stars young French actress Céleste Brunnquell, who previously appeared in TV series En Thérapie. Similarly, ‘Time to Time’ is “the rawest song we’ve ever made – a surge of life in its composition, production, and lyrics.” ‘All Yours Now’portrays an idealised love capable of transforming everything, while ‘Teenage Dreams’ tells the story of a shattered friendship, evolving from resentment to acceptance, uplifted by a glorious gospel choir. “The track is divided into two parts, just like the lyrics – first the bitterness of a betrayed friendship, then the moment of finding peace with it.”
Kids Return enter wildly exciting new territory for themselves and for modern listeners on the catchy, attitude-driven mid-tempo romps ‘Welcome To My Life’ and ‘Who Knows?’. The latter kicks off Side B of the album with a dark groove that has lips curling and hips unfurling. It is an effortless anthem for an everflowing life with fluxes of ineffable moods. Meanwhile, the former “went through many versions before we finalised it with our Australian friend, Sasha Frantz”, and the result is a methodical track that perfectly maps onto the listener’s speakers a classic Hollywood tale of high school woes. Later, ‘Perfect Lover’ combines the themes and attitudes of both these songs into a dreamy, erratic representation of teenage angst.
Amidst the anthems of bright skies, dark rooms and rebellious spirits, two tracks invoke an ocean of melancholy. ‘So Good Alone’ tempts the image of a stormy bay, in whose docks sailboats seek refuge from a thunderous sea, in the “comfort of being alone – far from others, far from everything.” Ending the album powerfully, ‘The Seattle Boat’ puts listeners directly into the vessel and pushes them out into that sea. Concluding the album’s deeply human themes, it celebrates the dreamy and personal sounds and lyrics of the previous nine tracks while extending the soundscape just that little bit further so as to remind the listener that this album–as much as it deals with lamentation and nostalgia–is a glimpse of a brilliant future. Kids Returnremark, “We love the idea of ending the album with a farewell, yet one that feels like the start of something new. Just like music – always in motion.”
Composed and recorded between the peaks of the Pyrenees and at the iconic Studios Saint Germain, the duo chartered a new sonic universe: one of galaxies hanging over the Britpop dream into which timeless melodies have been transmitted. Still in the flurry of new and exciting music and highly-anticipated live shows, Kids Return reflect on an album that is composed of “overwhelming emotion”, that navigates “the unstoppable flow of life” with “a touch of humour”. Listen to this album with reckless abandon. Be prepared to
ABOUT KIDS RETURN:
Born in 1997, close friends Adrien and Clément both grew up at the dawn of the new millennium, with its fantasies and disillusions. The year of their birth is also marked by a musical effervescence – the French Touch and the rise of Britpop: two major movements that would infuse their first recordings two decades later.
In 2022, Kids Return released their first album ‘Forever Melodies’ which began their adventure. In just a few months, the duet transitioned from a filmed live session at the legendary Motorbass studio, to sold-out shows at highly prestigious Paris venues including La Maroquinerie and La Cigale. The band went on tour North America, from Los Angeles to Montreal, including a very special night playing at the iconic Red Rocks amphitheater in the heart of Colorado. The two friends then jetted all the way to Tokyo to perform on the Summer Sonic stage in 2023, Japan’s most important festival. Several awards and events have embellished their rise in the industry, including representing France at Eurosonic where the band received an MME Award, two invitations at the famous French TV program Quotidien (awarded as the Best New Music Act of 2023), and multiple collaborations with luxury fashion house Saint Laurent. The duo recently had a viral moment with Subway Takes, which garnered an impressive 2.3M views and 90K likes.
After this first album led by a French and Californian pop heritage, the duo turned their gaze across the Channel, in England. This shift gave birth to their highly anticipated second album, set to release on April 4th 2025: ‘1997’, featuring more visceral and refined compositions. In a world that moves fast, Kids Return have chosen to slow down, letting their sharp guitars, tense rhythms and grandiose reverbs fully unfold. Since their inception, Kids Return place great importance on the visual aspect of their music, surrounding themselves with longtime friends: Tara-Jay Bangalter and Alice Gariépy.
With ‘1997’, Kids Return embark on a new chapter, an ambitious world tour punctuated by major milestones: a headline show at L’Olympia on May 14th, alongside performances at London’s Roundhouse and KOKO, Band On The Wall (Manchester), Hangar34 (Liverpool), Auditorio BB (Mexico) and a return to the legendary Red Rocks in the US. As they take their music to new heights, the duo continues to refine their sound and vision, driven by the same timeless energy that has defined them from the start.
Album Tracklist:
1. First Choice
2. All Yours Now
3. Teenage Dreams
4. So Good Alone
5. My Hero
6. Who Knows?
7. Time To Time
8. Welcome To My Life (Feat. Sasha Frantz)
9. Perfect Lover
10. The Seattle Boat
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