Different

Decades later, the history appears more nuanced, but as of the late 1970s, France’s apparent inability to produce a rock band on par with those in the English-speaking world was a cultural sore spot in some circles. The Dogs, from Rouen, crucially sang in English and used punk as a springboard to a laudable career and a source of national pride. Different was the trio’s debut and most aggressive effort. Drawing on early rock and roll, soul and proto-punk, the album is one of the stronger efforts of punk’s late-’70s second wave. 

Covers of R&B and garage rock standards “Fortune Teller” and “Nobody But Me” nod to their influences, but The Dogs really take off with the tightly coiled hooks of “A Different Me” and “Gotta Tell Her.” The rolling drums and chiming guitar chords that ground “(I’m Gonna Learn To) Live With It” seem to consciously evoke Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue,” and the emotional depth of that song is matched by singer Dominique Laboubée’s achingly expressive delivery on “The Greatest Gift.”