This is Madonna giving her performance of 2023. A highlight on his new album...this needs to be a single. I love how the song builds and I’m not sure yet if Madonna is backing vocals just before her spoken word piece and then...those beats and his vocal = perfection
Christine and the Queens - PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE
- Thread starter NecessaryVoodoo
- Start date
he/him
We have to be friends not being on the abridged track list is reason enough to disregard it.
Initial favorites:
A Day In The Water, To Be Honest, Full of Life, Track 10, True Love, Shine, We Have to Be Friends, Lick the Light Out, Big Eye
The one track I might struggle with a bit is Let Me Touch You Once. I find it slightly uncomfortable to listen to.
Obviously an album of this size takes time to digest fully. That said, I can’t help but respect this for what it is. 20 tracks, 96 minutes, uncompromising, indulgent, emotional, ethereal, combined with these chunky throwback ‘90s trip-hop beats…
There aren’t many capital-b Big, deep-dive, pop-adjacent albums like this being made anymore. (No, I’m not including deluxe editions or certain artists who release 5 editions of an album within a year.) It reminds me of how the divas used to release grand, long-trek albums in the ‘90s that took you on wild journeys.
Of course, Lana just released an 80 minute epic, and Kelela gave us an ambient-leaning aquatic journey at a (relatively brief) 62 minutes, but these are basically outliers in today’s “music must be bite sized” market. I mean, Janelle Monae of all people just served us a 31 minute mixtape of HitClips.
I guess neither approach is wrong. I understand how some might find a 96 minute album overly indulgent, unfocused, impenetrable, etc. However, for me, personally, I appreciate it more when artists trust their audience enough to challenge us. It feels so old school to actually need to sit down with an album and spend more than one day with it to absorb it fully. It’s a valuable experience, and I feel like I’m already being rewarded with focused listening.
A Day In The Water, To Be Honest, Full of Life, Track 10, True Love, Shine, We Have to Be Friends, Lick the Light Out, Big Eye
The one track I might struggle with a bit is Let Me Touch You Once. I find it slightly uncomfortable to listen to.
Obviously an album of this size takes time to digest fully. That said, I can’t help but respect this for what it is. 20 tracks, 96 minutes, uncompromising, indulgent, emotional, ethereal, combined with these chunky throwback ‘90s trip-hop beats…
There aren’t many capital-b Big, deep-dive, pop-adjacent albums like this being made anymore. (No, I’m not including deluxe editions or certain artists who release 5 editions of an album within a year.) It reminds me of how the divas used to release grand, long-trek albums in the ‘90s that took you on wild journeys.
Of course, Lana just released an 80 minute epic, and Kelela gave us an ambient-leaning aquatic journey at a (relatively brief) 62 minutes, but these are basically outliers in today’s “music must be bite sized” market. I mean, Janelle Monae of all people just served us a 31 minute mixtape of HitClips.
I guess neither approach is wrong. I understand how some might find a 96 minute album overly indulgent, unfocused, impenetrable, etc. However, for me, personally, I appreciate it more when artists trust their audience enough to challenge us. It feels so old school to actually need to sit down with an album and spend more than one day with it to absorb it fully. It’s a valuable experience, and I feel like I’m already being rewarded with focused listening.
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I am intimidated. This is appointment listening. He's going to scalp me in a way that I probably am not going to see coming, eh?
Yeah, this sounds like a triumph to me. It’s sprawling, it’s a lot, but there’s beauty around every bend.
Any/All
The first part I really enjoyed, the second meandered a bit, and the third one had some great moments, but that was only the first listen. Overall I just really admire his guts for releasing something this uncompromising and I can't wait to dive into it further. We are blessed that this was not scrapped by his label. One thing that immediately stuck - the vocal deliveries are out of this world! There was one track where he was even giving me a bit of Lingua Ignota?
Gotta be He's Been Shining For Ever, Your Son, Shine, or Big Eye because I thought the same exact thing! Her and Zola Jesus.
he/him
Finally diving in!
There seems to be some text on the 'sticker' over the cover of the 'Highlights' edition - does anyone have the copy somewhere I can read it? I have a weird fascination for abridged versions/artists' who choose their own highlights and GH tracklists so want to know if he justifies the choices somehow.
From what I've seen of it, it seems to be poetry. I'm the same, though - super curious to hear why he chose those highlights, too. What would yours be?
1. Tears Can Be Soft
2. A Day in the Water
3. Full of Life
4. Angels Crying In My Bed
5. Track 10
6. True Love
7. Shine
8. We Have to be Friends
9. To Be Honest
10. Big Eye
Not sure why he went with 9 tracks, either. So hard to cut it down!
2. A Day in the Water
3. Full of Life
4. Angels Crying In My Bed
5. Track 10
6. True Love
7. Shine
8. We Have to be Friends
9. To Be Honest
10. Big Eye
Not sure why he went with 9 tracks, either. So hard to cut it down!
I've been diving in and out of this album throughout the past two days. Obviously listening front to back is a bit much for various reasons. As someone who actually kinda liked the Prologue album I was super excited for this; also Tears can be so soft has been on constant rotation since it's release. As expected there's so much beauty in this album and I have so much respect for the journey they've been on the past years. I need a bit more time with it but I'd argue it reminds me a bit of the Prologue album in that it's a bit uneven; great songs sit next to not so great ones. Out of the new tracks, Marvin descending, We have to be friends and Big Eye are my favorites so far. When thinking about the track list and the "highlights" version of the album, I can't help but wonder what an amazing album could've come out had the best songs of the Prologue been included and some of the lesser songs been shedded:
1. Ma bien aimée bye bye
2. La clairefontaine
3. Les étoiles
4. Looking for love
5. My Birdman
6. Combien de temps
1. Tears can be so soft
2. Marvin descending
3. A day in the water
4. Angels crying in my bed (feat. Madonna)
5. True love (feat. 070 Shake)
6. Track 10
1. Shine
2. We have to be friends
3. Flowery Days
4. Lick the Light Out (feat. Madonna)
5. To Be Honest
6. Big Eye
1. Ma bien aimée bye bye
2. La clairefontaine
3. Les étoiles
4. Looking for love
5. My Birdman
6. Combien de temps
1. Tears can be so soft
2. Marvin descending
3. A day in the water
4. Angels crying in my bed (feat. Madonna)
5. True love (feat. 070 Shake)
6. Track 10
1. Shine
2. We have to be friends
3. Flowery Days
4. Lick the Light Out (feat. Madonna)
5. To Be Honest
6. Big Eye
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The way this album gets better with each listen.
he/him
Marvin descending, Full of life, Flowery days, We have to be friends - some of Chris’ career bests. A truly magnificent work.
This is no 4 in the U.K. midweeks - and whilst it will almost certainly fall, it’s going to beat the no 45 position of his last album.
The breadth of influences - Madonna, Sade, Nine Inch Nails, some Fiona Apple too - and just the scope of the whole project, it adds up and delivers. You feel the totality of his growth, not only in terms of identity, but artistry and musicianship, and it feels so rare these days to have a pop-centric artist explore what they’re capable of in this sprawling, why hold back?, way. Also, where I thought redcar lost its way and abandoned melody too often, this one melds the instrumentation and song craft so much better, and gives both enough breathing space to flourish. There’s a lot more to unpack, and little corners of individual songs to get into, but for now, just a very, very impressive body of work I’m looking forward to living with this year.
I find the idea of this album overwhelming. Any good songs to ease on into it, at least initially?
To be honest (one of my songs of the year) and Full of life.
The rest is a lot to me.