Christine and the Queens it is difficult to pinpoint, and that’s the beauty of it. The French pop phenom rose to fame with their self-titled debut album in 2015 — a more-English re-edition of his French debut, Chaleur Humaine (“Human warmth”), which became the biggest selling uk debut of 2016.
Then came a new, more aggressive era in 2018 — described as “hot, hungry and ambitious” in The New York Times. Christine did Chris, and their fiery second album, Chrisborn: another self-titled debut album, of sorts, under a new mononym.
The fire roars in its new five-song EP, The Vita Nuova (“The New Life”), and the 13-minute short film that accompanies it. Shot in Paris the famous Palais Garnier by Colin Solal Cardo (of Robyn’s “Never again” and Charli XCX’s “White Mercedes”), the film sums up some of the best of its peculiar power of the stars: the bass-driven track Chris in “Je Disparais dans Tes Bras” (“I disappear in Your Arms”) with the downtempo embers of Chaleur Humaine in “the Mountains (We find).”
Choreographed by Ryan Heffington (Sia’s “Chandelier”) and costarring the delight that is Felix Maritaud (of 120 Beats Per Minute and Sauvage), is a witty send up to a “very difficult time”, as she described it to POPSUGAR.