Issue #36: THE PIROUETTES and CHRISTOPHE WILLEM
The French do be doing their little thang
Bonjour,
Omelette du fromage? Ever heard of it? That’s right. It’s French. The language based on the country of France. From Europe? Of being a continent fame? Are we following? I feel like I’ve explained myself very clearly.
I’ve got some French stuff for you today. Two different ends of the French pop spectrum to be éxacte. Both of these artists have been a recent source of much needed joyful, vibrant, energy (load up at every chance, folks!). Listening to these Frenchies is like cracking open an ice cold bottle of… I guess, what, like Perrier? They’ll make your brain sparkle with their buoyant production, charming vocals, esoteric lyrics. In my opinion, some of the best music to harken in the spring.
So let’s take a listen to:
THE PIROUETTES and CHRISTOPHE WILLEM
Allons-y!
HIGHBROW: The Pirouettes
Is there a German word for finding out about a band, getting addicted to their music, and then upon further research finding out they disbanded in 2022? Well, the French word for that (for me) is The Pirouettes. The duo—made up of ex-bandmates, ex-lovers, and current solo artists Vickie Cherie and Leo Leonard—formed in 2011, when the two decided to perform at their high school’s talent week. They fell in love, moved to Paris, kept making music, and whaddya know, indie pop success.
After dropping a couple of EPs, the band finally released their debut album «Carrément, Carrément» in 2016. The album is filled with their signature, bubbly electro-pop sound, but the track that goes especially hard? Pour moi? That would have to be the album’s hit single L’escalier, a bouncy tune about sitting with your lover on the roof. But, like, in a philosophical way. As in, “Come, my love, sit with me on this roof. It is the roof of life. And it is the perfect vantage point from which we can observe others trying to figure out what life is about, which we know is unknowable anyways! Oui oui!” Not your typical pop lyrics, necessarily, but I think this is just the kind of thing that happens when you’re made to read Satre in middle school.
Like any good 2010s indie band worth its weight in salt, The Pirouettes also have a pretty great YouTube presence. You’ve got your requisite quirky, low-budget but visually dynamic music videos, you’ve got your Career-Defining Big-Time Live Set where dedicated fans know the lyrics so well that they start singing the whole song instead of the band… you know, the staples. But amidst all that, you’ll find some weird stuff too. Like this short film about an ill-fated trip to Los Angeles. Or this video that is so painfully 2012 coded, where baby Vickie and baby Leo sing a twee little song in English about being “ready to make your ass shake in the sexiest way.” I can never quite tell when they’re being earnest, when they’re being tongue-in-cheek, but I like that. It keeps me on my toes.
You can find the music video for L’éscalier on YouTube and stream their music on SoundCloud, Bandcamp, or wherever you listen.
LOWBROW: Christophe Willem
I have a story for you. Picture this: It’s 2009. Spring semester, Junior year. You just turned 17 and you can practically taste summer vacation (which, say it with me: tastes like sunscreen smells!) The only thing standing between you and sweet freedom are those awful end of year exams. FML. (2009, remember?)
At least your French teacher, bless her soul, tries to make the preparation process a little less painful by bringing some pop culture into the mix. To help you get ready for the listening portion of the exam, she asks you to transcribe the lyrics of two different pop songs. The first is a little Britney/Christina-esque pop song. Cute. Moving on. You hit play on track number 2 and before you know it… boom, off goes Christophe Willem’s Bombe Anatomique. You find yourself in a Perrier moment. You’re hit with a rush of Christophe’s unique pop vocal. He has a pop-rock belt like Adam Lambert’s, a musical brightness like Mika’s, and then there’s this sultriness that can only be described as “giving diva.” You take all this in: the sound, the lyrics. You commit it all to memory. “I can’t forget this,” you think to yourself, “I have to Google this later.” And you do. And then you continue to not forget about this song for another decade and a half. And now you’re in your 30s and there’s no way for you to retain any information about “the markets” because that space is already occupied by Christophe Willem lyrics.
While deeply sad and pathetic, this anonymous, completely unidentifiable person’s story does teach us something important. And that is the power of Christophe Willem’s voice. Christophe, in some ways, gives the Susan Boyle experience in that his voice and his appearance do not quite match up according to our limited collective preconceptions of what singers look and sound like. Christophe was first introduced to the French public in his televised audition for Nouvelle Star, France’s version of American Idol (which is itself a spin-off of Britain’s Idol). Christophe enters serving Mark from Rent and sporting the posture of—as judge Marianna James put it—«une tortue», a turtle. The then 22-year-old opts to sing “Strong Enough” by Des’ree (the same singer who told us we gotta be bad, bold, wiser, etc.) And much to the «choc» of the judges… Christophe kinda eats! Not only that, he goes on to win the 4th season of Nouvelle Star. The following year, Christophe drops his debut albums and it goes double-platinum, his single debuts at the top of the charts… he just can’t stop winning. And he’s been releasing music fairly regularly ever since.
Chritophe’s sonic identity is all about voice, its unusually high range, and his ability to support anything from a dance track to a power ballad. The thing I can’t quite pin down about Christophe, though, is his visual identity. Like, the «Bombe Anatomique» video feels very “MySpace Music Marilyn Manson,” but the video for his hit single «Double Je» (another banger) is giving more “2006 Spirit Awards Short Film Nominee.” Does this inconsistency matter to me? Listen, we can’t expect everything in life to make sense. I make peace with the unknowable.
Listen to Christophe Willem’s first album «Inventaire» — and his songs «Bombe Anatomique», «Double Je», and the even more banging Remix — wherever you get your musique.
Merci for your time and attention. If you enjoyed this or any issue of HIGHBROW/LOWBROW, I would be gr8ful and !nd3bt3d if you shared the newsletter with someone in your life who may also enjoy getting a curated list of media on a semi-regular basis. Word-of-mouth truly helps newsletters grow 🫶🏾
Happy Thursday and a very ooh là là to you and yours.
Bisous,
Simone