Christine And The Queens (the Héloïse Letissier thread)

6 track EP and short film out now! https://pitchfork.com/news/christine-and-the-queens-shares-new-ep-and-short-film-watch/

multiple fire emojis!

god the song with caroline is fucking amazing

italian ululation and then a huge haim-style chorus

this is her best work

Yeah, this is all right

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIdSORj_dd0

(and the actual sounds)
https://soundcloud.com/christineandthequeens/sets/la-vita-nuova-1

This is a great EP. She just keeps getting better!

new album delves into synth-heavy post-punk, kinda coldwave? a bit of a departure

apparently a second album is on the way too, produced by mike dean

i also didn't realise chris had been a relative flop, it was really good and a step up from the debut but i guess it didn't produce the same sort of hits somehow?

it's a weird listen because it still has much more of a pop sensibility than a lot of what it's drawing on but it's pretty raw and unstructured for a pop album

feels like after a few more listens i'll either think it's completely brilliant or be completely frustrated by its indulgences

interested in hearing the mike dean record

but the direction Redcar's gone in the past five years has been a real diminishment for me

sad that the change (imho diminishment) in music has coincided with his transition, and that he'll likely internalize the reaction to the former on the latter

the observer profile bummed me out
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/06/christine-and-the-queens-redcar-interview-adorables-etoiles

both chris and la vita nuova were very good so i'm not sure what you mean

just this new one is a weirder more self-indulgent thing and i very much get why his label has no idea what to make of it but it sounds like things are tense and no one's happy

I don't follow C&tQ enough to have known that he transitioned this year, and have liked the stray song in the past and the recent one with Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek; but a quick listen to a bit of this Redcar album and I think it's really good! It's weird and arty and pretentious and I can see why people might be taken aback by this stuff. Anyway I'll probably listen to this some more.

Les étoiles is beautiful

wow just sampling on bandcamp and this is wonderful

For me the new record is a bit aimless and opaque, unfortunately, outside of "rien dire" which I adore. Between the loss of his mother, the broken leg, and label tensions it sounds like it's been a rough trot for him and I don't anticipate this album garnering the same level of critical or commercial praise as the prior releases, so I hope that doesn't make things worse for him on a personal level.

I think he is an extraordinary talent and the live show I saw a couple of years ago was one of the best ever. So I'm hopeful that the Mike Dean album might be more my speed.

I've been enjoying this, but (at least on Spotify) the backing production is super muddy? It's like someone is playing 80s synthpop records in a wardrobe in another room, really loud.

Struggling to make sense of the new album. Agree with Monotony that Rien Dire is the clear standout. I did like the really one that samples Gina X Performance as well. I'll spend more time with it as I really want to love this album.

It's a strange situation that Chris was relative commercial disappointment. The album got universal acclaim, good radio play and seemed to be promoted really well. Girlfriend, Doesn't Matter and 5 Dollars should have all been huge hits. The debut seemed to be a success on Tilted alone. Chris was a big step-up and the EP was even better. It has been sad to see this new one come out with so little fanfare. The one video from the album so far appears to have no budget. The Guardian article is really worrying. I hope things get better for him. He's one of the biggest talents out there. I don't see this album doing that well and hope that doesn't mean the next album gets even less of a push.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNh-6sNxx6A

first single from the album with mike dean sounds much better

album has three madonna (!) collabs

A triple album with the seventh track called "Track 10" (could it be a Charli cover???) It certainly sounds...intriguing, especially with all the Madonna features.

It was interesting too that when speaking with Clara Amfo on BBCR1 Chris didn't mention Redcar at all, and Clara was acting as though there hadn't been any new C&TQ material in ages. I wonder if Redcar and its songs will be dropped altogether from future tours, or if its dry coldwave will permeate through this new album too.

lol i hope it's a charli cover

https://www.standard.co.uk/esmagazine/christine-and-the-queens-interview-new-album-trans-paranoia-angels-true-love-b1067166.html

confirmation that madonna is just doing some spoken word bits (how did i know that's what it would be lol)

lol there is an 11 minute track on this

the album is a lot to grapple with, but there's definitely more for me to enjoy here than on Redcar

you could make a very good album out of half of this but the other half is pretty meandering. still a much better sort of self-indulgent mess than redcar though

it's also just weird to hear mike dean in this mode outside of his work with kanye, this sound is so closely associated with him.

i think the only thing i really dislike is "full of life" being built around pachelbel's canon, that's such a corny move. otherwise this is mostly great despite being all together way too much

"Tears can be so soft" is a deep jam, trip hop vibes, incredible stuff going on. What's the song it reminds me of? Not the Marvin Gaye sample, though that is also a+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM8cBIfzRjs

The live show is mindbending, what an incredible artist. Really opened the album for me. Hard to put into words what was going on, but these reviews do a decent job:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jun/18/christine-and-the-queens-review-meltdown-royal-festival-hall-london
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jun/24/christine-and-the-queens-review-grief-lust-and-transcendence

There must be full footage of the Glastonbury show somewhere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBpGd9gZtRg

I'm with you. The album has connected with a huge amount over the last week. For a 90 minute album, it's remarkably consistent and almost always captivating.

What's the song it reminds me of?

massive attack's "teardrop"?

definitely hearing massive attack

it's the cadence of "I miss my mother miss my mother miss my mother at night" that tickles, could be an old soul song or something 90s, could be MJ, can't place it but it's instantly familiar

idk then, beyond the production there's a few little bits of the vocal melody that are very reminiscent of "teardrop" but not the part you're thinking of

i still wish the album was a little shorter but it's really strong overall, a pretty immense accomplishment. the second half of "lick the light out" is probably my favourite bit

There must be full footage of the Glastonbury show somewhere

You scallywag! Shiver me timbers! Jolly roger might have a link in the briny deep etc

Separate note here that Chris was a guest judge on the opening episode of Drag Race France Season 2 the other day. Fun appearance! The lip sync choice was the duet with Indochine (whose lead dude was the other guest judge).

this is fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlIYME8iQ1Y