Twenty‑Two marks the true starting point of Initials MB, the alter ego of French musician and image‑maker Maxime Baderspach. First released in 2016 as a digital‑only debut and now remixed, remastered and pressed to vinyl via Funk Night Records, the album captures a moment of transition: a young songwriter stepping away from fast riffs and high‑tempo rock toward a more cinematic, 60s‑inflected universe. Heard ten years on, it plays like a diary of that shift, full of small risks and half‑remembered colours, the sound of someone figuring out what their voice might be while already wielding a strong sense of mood.

Across its eleven tracks, Twenty‑Two draws deeply on the mythic pop of the 60s and 70s without reducing itself to pastiche. Jangling and fuzzed guitars, velvety organs, flutes and lightly psychedelic effects orbit around concise, hook‑driven songwriting. Chorused chords and minor‑key turns nod to baroque pop and soft psych, while the rhythms keep things grounded in song rather than jam: mid‑tempo strolls, gently propulsive grooves, a few sharper jabs where the old love of fast tempos resurfaces. The production favours warmth and intimacy, as if these were soundtracks for films that never existed, projected in small, smoky cinemas.

What distinguishes Twenty‑Two is the way it uses those familiar ingredients to sketch a personal transition. You can feel Baderspach reaching beyond guitar‑centric habits, letting keyboards and arrangements carry as much weight as riffs, allowing instrumental passages to breathe as much as the sung sections. Melodies often arrive with straightforward charm but are framed by harmonic detours, unexpected modulations or small production oddities that tilt a song just off‑centre. It’s the sound of someone in love with classic forms, but unwilling to simply reenact them; the album moves between straightforward pop pleasure and more introspective, even slightly melancholy pockets.