Christine and the Queens - Paranoïa, Angels, True Love (Album Review)
Tuesday, 20 June 2023
Written by Katie Macbeth
Photo: Jasa Muller
Carrying on with the narration that began on his 2022 release ‘Redcar les adorables étoiles’, ‘Paranoïa, Angels, True Love’ allows Chris to reembody the titular Redcar character on an album that is is drenched in enough emotion and psychodrama to make its 97 minute, 20 track running order feel involving and worthwhile.
Drawing inspiration from Tony Kushner’s acclaimed 1991 play Angels in America, as well as rock operas such as the Who’s ‘Tommy’, the album deals with grief at the loss of Chris’s mother, his belief in angels, and the loneliness felt while coming to terms with his gender identity.
These themes arrive hand-in-hand during the six-minute highlight Lick The Light Out, which features the spiritual voice of Madonna, painting a dreamlike picture of the icon as motherhood, God and consciousness embodied.
“I miss my mother,” Chris repeats on the Portishead-reminiscent Tears Can Be So Soft, with his soothing, raspy voice dripping over pulsing bass that slides into ethereal violins, sampling Marvin Gaye’s Feel All My Love Inside, and a joyous outburst when he realises that he cries because he can.
Sampling is a recurring theme throughout, meticulously through the album’s use of Pachelbel’s Canon In D on the track Full Of Life, using the melody associated with church weddings as a backdrop for a quest for “sublime and divine” queer love.
Final track Big Eye holds Chris’s most angelic vocals yet, allowing him to become fused with every topic discussed within the last 90 minutes, announcing: “I am now your mother, I will carry you through the other side,” in a stunning display of deliverance that features big guitars and a moving a capella.
‘Paranoïa, Angels, True Love’ could eventually be regarded as Christine and the Queens’ magnum opus. It is a consistent, magnificent album both its exploration of themes and sounds, rightly described by its author as a “love letter to the world and heavens that encapsulates the fever of life.”
Christine and the Queens Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Wed June 21 2023 - LONDON Pryzm Kingston
Wed September 06 2023 - BIRMINGHAM Symphony Hall
Thu September 07 2023 - MANCHESTER Manchester Academy
Fri September 08 2023 - EDINBURGH Usher Hall
Sun September 10 2023 - DUBLIN 3Olympia Theatre
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