After releasing a run of must-have LPs, French garage psych duo Lionel & Marie Limiñana have worked with big names like Pascal Comelade and Laurent Garnier, and they also ventured into compelling film soundtracks, but at their core they still deliver the same addictive rhythms—bells and reverb galore—as when I first saw them live some 15 years ago. On their new full-length album Faded, it all comes together in 13 new tracks, thematically centered around the dimmed glow of movie stars from the past. That brings along quite a few emotions, full of loving nostalgia, such as in the beautiful girl group-like title track: “Is it only me // Who sees all that she used to be?”

We get cinematic instrumentals (Spirale, The Dancer), original songs with that characteristic, bewitching sound (Tu Viens Marie, Autour De Chez Moi), and successful covers (a tribute to the late Françoise Hardy in Où Va La Chance, a sultry version of Richard Berry’s Louie Louie), but it is especially the high-class collaborations that are remarkable (Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, Bertrand Belin, Rover, Penny, Juniore’s Anna Jean, Jon Spencer & Pascal Comelade). All in all, this versatile record takes us on an exciting tour through the hazy, haunting dreamscape that is Hollywood: “A prisoner of beauty in the Theatre of Cruelty // Paradoxical curse of the monied church.”

Faded is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl 2-LP, through Because Music / Berreto Music.

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