Album Review: Christine and the Queens - 'PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE’
Managing grief and angels: Chris once again dazzles us in lustful potency via angels: as the narration continues from 2022's Redcar les adorables étoiles.
"I just turn the mic on and launch the horses.." - Christine and the Queens talking to Vulture, May 23
Chris's music has always been cathartically charged, shredding up the very idea of "conformative pop," and rewriting the rule book to what a true artist really is. His passionate electronic pop voyages have been questioning the very morality of gender, sexuality and identity since his 2014 departure of Chaleur Humaine, a debut that sparked a now-glistening career in France. Paranoia, Angels, True Love is equally ambitious: a highly illustrious 20-track powerhouse of ethereal beauty and undeniable loss with so much depth in it all, it’s almost impossible to unpack in one mere little write-up.
This new record is the second part of an operatic gesture that started out with 2022’s Redcar les adorables étoiles - a bold concept statement that baffled fan and critics alike. Alongside his captive performance at this years' BBC Radio 6 Music Festival in Manchester, it has instilled Chris’s stronghold in the world of music for the French phenomenon.
Taking inspiration from the glorious dramaturgy of Tony Kushner’s iconic play, Angels in America, Redcar felt colourful and absurd like Prior sent to his insane dream-space. He denotes it as being; "ANGELS... is a key towards heart-opening transformation, a prayer towards the self - the one that breathes through all the loves it is made of."
Above all else, the 2-track LP is spiritually minded; a cathartic release of shedding all waters and memories - only to immerge as an angel offering back profound love - at rest. It's about grief and sex and fear and hope and an appearance of an equally enigmatic artist through the wistful voice-over work from Madonna - an apparition as an Angels-esque presence known as Big Eye.
It originally started out writing quips of poetic incursions to no one and has led to a seven-and-a-half hour runtime of ANGELS - a deeply rewarding escape to the malpractice of music in the "traditional sense", if you're willing, as it takes on fresh ideas all with bold acclaim sonically. The first glimpse we saw of new material was through To be honest, a synth-heavy stalwart of an explosive outcry, "Broken and yet tender / Always in and always out / Heading to the water / Drowning in what it can hide, hide.."
Soon after, we were met with a more subdued effort of True Love, a hauntingly beautiful plea to the angel of light to "take me higher", as a line of industrial synths embrace Chris to his acceptance of fate. While Tears can be so soft is a true resonance to the artistry as Chris is "praying to angels every day" - something that is part of the process - it gratifies the existence of personal loss. The melting pot of those 80s metallic synth-sounds and Chris's honey-high vocals result in a highly evocative concept album, seemingly translucent in thought; almost as if it's not Chris herself but another being entirely. A something.
While Track 10 doesn't have an imaginative title, it is a polar opposite to what can be unpacked in the 11-minute journey we're waded through. A highly potent blend of uneasiness and high shrills make it a truly immersive experiment of sound outpour. A heady statement of intent, it is no doubt one of the standouts.
Full of Life is one of hope as Chris pulls on that sexual identity thread he has been doing throughout his career. He goes on to outrightly declare, I let go of my pride / For whatever reason I’m free, the ascending violins taking him to the light before he's brought back down to Earth rather abruptly with; "Take my hand and forget that i am just another woman / Even though you see me you’ll never let me be your boyfriend” - a reminder that sexual and gender identity are still not widely accepted in the wider circles.
Despite the new record seeing Chris take a final step towards metamorphosis - ultimately away from the suffering - Angels crying in my bed does its best to remind us of past experiences with the rather powerful question poised, "Is it really love or is it blood, Dripping off my wrists?" The mightily implosive Lick the Light Out is a purging of power as it climaxes to a declaration, "I’m an angel in power / I decided to see you / As a human, a flower / I see you, I hear you, I feel you."
The record sees Chris)tine and the Queens explore the anxiety of PARANOÏA, contemplate the nature of the divine through a study of ANGELS, and end in an all encompassing exploration of TRUE LOVE - and does so emphatically without harming the integrity or dexterity of Chris as an artist or Kushner as a writer. If you can sustain the longevity of the album, it’s worth every minute spent in their own version of events.
A highly emotive project playing homage to what poetry can do, it is an adventurous side of concept-pop we’ve all been craving for.
Words by Alex Curle
