Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
To be in the company of those that refuse to be placed in comfortable boxes for the benefit of others, is to acknowledge that life is beautifully varied, and we all have the right to have our own truth, if not celebrated, then at least acknowledged for their truth to be heard.
We are fluid, in the eyes of who know us we are not the same person, it comes down to perception, and perceptions are unclear, they are assortments of the larger picture, and it is the same in art, for what one person finds unrealistic, perhaps confusing in one album, they can find demanding and pleasurable in another…and often by the same artist.
Perhaps one of the most diverse of all artists in the last decade is the one founded as Christine & The Queens, and who for the purposes of the latest album has adopted the name of Redcar, and it begs the question posed by Shakespeare, for what really is a name, a rose is still a rose, and dynamic lyrics are remain undisputed.
In Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles,panache and style are paramount, but also is truth, and like the perception of the person before us, it is skewed by being unable to see beyond the skin, we can dig all we like to the soul and the crux of the meaning, but unless the performer wants us to know what stirs the heart then we are in a kind of limbo, a passionate desire, but still amongst the stars when we are aiming for the heavens.
The sense of theatre is open, it is cabaret without limitations, without concern, and as tracks such as the opener Ma Bien Aimée Byebye, La Chanson Duchevalier, Mémoire Des Ailes, Looking For Love, and My Birdman, Christine & The Queens formidable presence is the fire beneath the exploding star, so bright, so colourful, and yet one also that could require shades, for nothing can prepare you for the whole truth to be unveiled in such a dramatic fashion.
An album that exemplifies the change on show, the constant revolves of the human experience, and one of untiring beauty. Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles is as the title insists, adorable.
Ian D. Hall