New President, new music?

The title is actually questionable! France does indeed have a new President, promising to make real the winds of change. The music scene in France seems to have beaten him to it - by a long kilometre - but both outcomes are probably symptomatic of a certain sea change.
Born long after the first wave of punk, and too young even to remember the US, Nirvana led, punk renaissance they wisely decided to go back to basics.

The Plasticines do punk, with an intellectual edginess (any self-respecting French band would), but also with the pop sensitivity and brevity that few bands since The Clash have been able to muster in the last twenty five years.
What is more, when it suits them, they can do in French too! The really surprising thing about it all is that The Plasticines are actually four 19-year-old Parisian girls who met at a Libertines concert and decided, apparently there and then, to form a band.
It is an odd story but a good call; as well as writing and singing punk they are now signed to Virgin (France) .

For more info see the following link. (btw it is in French.)

The nearest recent UK equivalent that I can think of is The Subways. It is a fairly good comparison I think although The Subways are a three-piece. Their female co-vocalist, Mary Charlotte Cooper, also happens to be their stunningly good and inventive bass guitarist and co-writer. The 2005 album 'Young For Eternity' has more than a little of the more thoughtful, yet still often bitter and twisted, end of the original punk era about it.