PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE
“We have to be friends”—the first song written for *PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE*—had a profound impact on its author. “I was like, ‘What the hell is going to be this record? This is going to be my awakening,” Chris tells Apple Music’s Proud Radio. “The song was all-knowing of something and admonishing me finally to stop being blind or something. So I started to take music even more seriously and more spiritually.” Even before that track, the French alt-pop talent had begun to embrace spirituality and prayer following the death of his mother in 2019—a loss that also colored much of 2022’s *Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue)*. But letting it into his music took him to deeper places than ever before. “This journey of music has been very extreme because I wanted to devote myself and I went to extreme places that changed me forever,” adds Chris. “An awakening is just the beginning of a spiritual journey, so I wouldn\'t say I\'m there, it would be arrogant. But it\'s definitely the opening of a clear path of spirituality through music.” After the high-concept, operatic *Redcar*, this album—a three-part epic lasting almost two hours that’s rooted in (and whose name nods to) Tony Kushner’s 1991 play *Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes*, an exploration of AIDS in 1980s America—confirms our arrival into the most ambitious Christine and the Queens era yet. The songs here will demand more of you than the smart pop that made Christine and the Queens famous—but they will also richly reward your attention, with sprawling, synth-led outpourings that reveal something new with every listen. Here, Chris (who collaborated with talent including superproducer MIKE DEAN and 070 Shake) reaches for trip-hop (the Marvin Gaye-sampling “Tears can be so soft”), classical music (the sublime “Full of life,” which layers Chris’ reverbed vocals over the instantly recognizable Pachelbel’s Canon), ’80s-style drums (“We have to be friends”), and the kind of haunting, atmospheric ballads this artist excels at (“To be honest”). Oh, and the album’s narrator? Madonna. “I was like, ‘If Madonna was just like a stage character, it would be brilliant,’” says Chris. “I pitch it like fast, quite intensely: ‘I need you to be the voice of everything. You need to be this voice of, maybe it\'s my mom, maybe it\'s the Queen Mary, maybe it\'s a computer, maybe it\'s everything.’ And she was like, ‘You\'re crazy, I\'ll do it.’” Chris gave the narrator a name: Big Eye. “The whole thing was insane, which is the best thing,” he says. “The record itself solidified itself in maybe less than a month. I was writing a new song every day. It was quite consistent and a wild journey. And as I was singing the song, the character was surfacing in the words. I was like, ‘Oh, this is a character.’ Big Eye was the name I gave the character because it\'s this very all-encompassing, slightly worrying angel voice, could be dystopian.” For Chris, this album was a teacher and a healer—even a “shaman.” “I discovered so much more of myself and rediscovered why I loved music so hard,” he says. “And it\'s this great light journey of healing I adore.” It also cracked open his heart. “This record for me is a message of love,” he adds. “It comes from me, but it comes from the invisible as well. Honestly, I felt a bit cradled by extra strength. Even the collaboration I had, this whole journey was about friendship, finding meaning in pain too. It opened my heart.”
Inspired by Angels in America, the French artist’s latest album is a raw, dreamlike, 20-song epic that still feels like a first draft.
At almost 100 minutes, PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE is Christine and the Queens' most astounding work yet. Expanding his craftsmanship to territories surprisingly well-suited for him, Chris grips on to hope as angels do to their wings, and it’s unlikely…
A 96-minute opera featuring guest spots from Madonna and 070 Shake, the French artist's fourth album is often weighed down by its own folly
The last album was weird and alienating, this one is also weird and absolutely wonderful
Christine and the Queens' new album, 'Paranoia, Angels, True Love,' reviewed by Rolling Stone.
The French star teams up with Madonna, samples a 17th-century composer, and takes inspiration from ‘Angels in America’ on this sprawling, occasionally self-indulgent record
The era Christine and the Queens began with Redcar les adorables étoiles was all about defying musical expectations and creating a musical world distinct from any of the project's previous work.
Christine and the Queens’ immersive fourth studio album balances sinister and sweet sensibilities, remaining remarkably cohesive throughout.
Chris has a lot to say. The French artist emerged from a period of grief and profound introspection with last year’s radical shift ‘Redcar les adorables
PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE by Christine and the Queens album review: art-pop ambition as theatrical as it is inscrutable
Christine and the Queens’s ‘Paranoïa, Angels, True Love’ is the culmination of the singer’s ambitious approach to pop conventions.
PARANOÏA ANGELS TRUE LOVE by Christine and the Queens album review by Sam Franzini. The multi-artists full-length is now out via Because
A howl of despair sublimated into beautiful experimental pop, the artist’s fourth album is his best yet
Monáe's delivers a hymn to unabashed pleasure, the former One Directioner overthinks things, and Christine and the Queens finds true love
French star's new one is a concept piece, featuring Madonna, that's overlong but sometimes persuasive. Review by Thomas H Green.