"Got to be a little less innocent/To be yours,” sings lead vocalist and keyboard player Clo Floret in “Make You Laugh,” the opening track off of Explicit Pictures. With sly vocals, swirling synths and ominous undertones, “Make You Laugh” sets the not-so-innocent tone for the full-length debut from French electro-pop trio We Are Enfant Terrible. Fusing nostalgic 8-bit Nintendo sounds with heavy electronic layering and distortion, Explicit Pictures offers a cunning collage of mischievous moods for a deftly dark release.

 

Each song on Explicit Pictures paints a fluid yet tainted portrait. For example, the hypnotic, disco-infused “Filthy Love” spins with sinister synths, while the progressively erratic “Because of the Bees” buzzes with neurotic undertones and the subtly foreboding “A Song to You” hums with melancholic murmurs (“In my arm there’s a vein/A way to feel free”). Similarly, Floret’s vocals range from raspy whispers to lingering cries, encapsulating the twisting tides of Explicit Pictures.

 

With its dark and eccentric twists and turns, Explicit Pictures shines in its gritty quest to find—or rather, failure to find—normality. This is best summarized in “Flesh ‘N’ Blood Kids,” in which Floret reminds us, “Bitches or geeks/We’re all flesh and blood kids.”