Singer/multi-instrumentalist François Hadji-Lazaro is the gravelly voiced, bigger-than-life creative force behind this folky punk band—or punky folk group—that electrifies French chanson. "Il faut que je m'en aille" (I Have to Go), from a 1990 concept album about a ludicrous man's dreary existence, snarls like a French version of the Pogues. While Pigalle's softer side emerges in "Madame Louise, elle est exquise," about a woman's romance with a polar bear, the band's legacy is a memorable rogues' gallery of charming scoundrels sketched with Hadji-Lazaro's banjos, accordions, and barrel organ.