J'Adore Chris.
Seamlessly blending native French and our own English in the same sentences of the same lines of the same hook gives Chris(tine) and her Queens one of the greatest gifts in modern pop music. Like the ability to see Sia's pain in how she instrumentally pitches her voice. Or how Taylor Swift can turn a broken heart into a hit record. But even from a Japanese Breakfast to a London Underground there is no electro, experimental synth-pop quite like Christine and the Queens. Hearing Héloïse Letissier levitate and translate between music like she did 808 samples of Kanye West's 'Heartless' interpolated with Christophe's 'Les Paradis Perdus' is as pleasant a surprise as seeing the iron lady of the Eiffel Tower in a golden Paris night light up like a thousand flashbulbs that will end up taking that same picture. But this pansexual 30 year old from Nantes, France is mixing nothing up as she truly finds herself in 'Chris'. The formidable follow-up to the beautiful breakthrough, 'Chaleur Humaine' sees the gender fluid artist crop her locks, slick them back and scrawl out the 'tine' in her name to just be Chris and the Queens. Leaving the only confusion being to whether some of the lyrics to lead, lead strong single 'Girlfriend' are French or "pardon my French". But Chris saves the swearing for in Spanish in a world and time were we have gone from having international fans sing along to songs from the Beatles in perfect English, without translation. To us lost in singing the foreign phrases from international artists like uber famous, South Korean boy band BTS in the same word for word. And like Cash or King Cole making albums in different languages for different countries, the queens' 'Chris' gives us a French and English version of the same record. In a today where language like gender constructs just don't matter.
We've waited a long time to hear from something just like this. And going back to the future in the 80's synth of her 'Girlfriend', Chris sings and swings on a wrecking ball, "I'm gone in a flick, but back in a second/With salted skin, rash for no reason/Boys are loading their arms, girls gasp with envy/F-f-for whom are they mimicking endlessly?/Same old sadness in small lumps on my jaw/For lusting after is the usual freak show/May your girl come, birdie die under this spur/F-f-f-fingers angrily sunk on the jugular, then girlfriend" for all the pop princesses to take note. "Touché" indeed. This album also contains '5 Dollars'. No not some money back in the form of honest Abe, but another stellar single that goes for the scores, singing, "You’re eager and unashamed/I grieve by dying every night baby/Prove them wrong when you get 5 dollars" and dressing up another classic visual for the S&M inspired music video. But forget a safe word, things get real personal and worth more on 'Doesn't Matter (Voleur de Soleil)' with lasting lines like, "Lingering on when they kiss/Leaning towards this abyss/And of lately the only people I can stare/Are the unraveled ones with their hands laying bare" and the potently powerful, "Rage as a fabric, through and through/Like that gaze they used to do/'Cause the suicidal thoughts that are still in my head/Give her that awful side-smile when I lay in bed" showing so much substance beneath the synth style. As Chris takes depression and anger to personal task. Whilst the French 'La Marcheuse' gives even deeper meaning, singing, "J’vais marcher très longtemps/Et je m’en vais trouver les poings qui redessinent/J’vais chercher éhontément/Les coups portés sur moi/La violence facile". Even lost in translation you hear and feel every emotion as it gets into the blood in your blue veins.
Yet for those about to ask Google, we'll save the breath that does the effort of just keying it in as those lyrics mean, "I'm going to walk all the time/And I'm going to force the aggressive looks/I always go in front/I'm waiting to find/Easy violence" and literally so much more. There's depth to the decadence and mainstream defiance as Chris(tine) and the Queens show us that popular music need not be the bubblegum saccharine of those who would rather live their lives for mainstream acceptance, rather than their own individual stance, head and shoulders (word to the shampoo). As a matter of fact the only artist that stands a frame above this is the 'Masseducation' of miss St. Vincent. But with this soaring sophomore, statement album after a definitive debut, when these queens hit trip we'll know whether they become shooting stars sky-rocketing before they flame out. Or legends of music that will forever be timeless. Tracks like the outstanding opener in LCD Soundsystem like electro-funk reply, 'Comme Si' and the domestic violence cautionary tale of 'The Walker' further this notion. Whilst 'Goya Soda' fizzes and pops like ring pulls on shaken cans. But the worn word to the wise of 'Damn (What Must A Woman Do)' brings pure heartbreak over heart strings, pitching, "Let me mourn/The one that corrupted all/How cold she doesn't call, no calls, no calls/Just like before/I'm worn out but I want some more/Naked with opened door/Encore, encore". Stronger than the sweet soul of 'Humaine' and toned up with Cameo and Michael Jackson 'Dangerous' influences from 'What's-Her-Face' to 'Feels So Good'. There are sharper edges here like 'Make Some Sense' to the bolder 'The Stranger' in an album full of instant classics that become as readily recognisable as something you've heard for years by the second chorus. The raw pansexual energy, lust and sweat of this set is stunning. And much more freeing with purity in equality. As this queen of hearts becomes Chris, not only are we given one of the greatest albums of the year, but also one of the most defiant of the decade and most meaningful of her moment in the mainstream. An explosion of feminism, masculinity, sexuality and vulnerability that will touch you body and soul, skin to skin. Feel it. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
On Repeat: 'Girlfriend', 'Comme Si', La Marcheuse'.
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