You’ll either hate or love Tellier's Sexuality
March 4, 2008
(Click graphic to enlarge)
The famous German poet Christoph Martin Wieland wrote, “Music is the language for passions.” Sebastien Tellier seems to be determined to remind us of this statement in his sensual new album, Sexuality.
While he enjoyed singing melancholy songs about past love, lost love and future love on the marvelously nostalgic Universe, the bearded and gifted French songwriter returns with a third album aiming this time to titillate the public’s sexuality. If the substance of this new LP is changed from past one, the means to achieve it are then all the more upset.
A fan of Timbaland and Snoop Dogg, Tellier, who just turned 33, wanted to record an album dealing with sex in a modern way, meaning in an American R&B format. He composed for the very first time a complete album of electronic songs.
While Sexuality could appear to neophytes like a turning point in Tellier’s career, his loyal listeners will not be that surprised by this new record. Indeed, a few songs of the album Universe, in which Tellier used some electronic effects, could have announced this recent shift in style. Sexuality also shares with Universe arrangements bare of complexity.
Like his album’s cover suggests, Tellier, a knight-singer, decided to join the French cavalry of electronic performers including Air, Daft Punk and Justice, to help them rescue and diffuse French music. To achieve this goal, Tellier used Shakespeare’s language, and thus, recorded nine of the eleven songs in English.
Despite these several changes, Tellier impresses us once again, delivering a triumphant album in which the sexual tension never goes soft. This constitutes the great achievement of Tellier’s new album: suggest sexual desire for 50 minutes. The women’s chorus feigning orgasms in most of the songs, especially in “Pomme,” plays a huge part in this. Tellier, a modern storyteller, tells an epic erotic odyssey in which our hero starts his journey on a beach (“Roche”), then deals with “eye seduction” (“Look”), then with the aftermath of sex (“Elle”).
As usual, Tellier shifts from humorous songs like “Kilometer,” supposed to express the German way of making love, to more deeply moving ones, like “L’amour et la Violence.” Tellier’s love for simplicity reaches its pinnacle in this tremendous tune, the solo piano only containing a slight touch of electronic sounds. Tellier reveals moreover in his most sincere song the real extent of his voice. Dealing with the fact that he is not “a sexual king, but just a normal guy with a wonderful sexual dream,” Tellier proves that his album is everything but an impersonal and average album of electronic music.
The fact that he does not disclose more of his voice could be deplored though. And after listening to this album a few times, it gets quite tiresome and redundant.
Once again, the critics and the audience might not be unanimous toward Tellier’s new album; you either hate or love Tellier’s music. His detractors reproach him for writing arrogant, hype music, while his admirers praise his perfect balance between burlesque and seriousness. Thus, Tellier divides. But isn’t exciting the senses, whether we feel it as an attack or as pleasure, the essence of art? Numerous artists before him, like Gainsbarre, provoked sometimes disgust and sometimes admiration. Tellier, a truly original artist delivering a bold and soon-to-be cult album, definitely deserves all the compliments he gets.
More March 4, 2008 Arts Stories
- International Fashion Show pleased the crowd — Nervous that another stage crewmember might pop around the corner and issue a loud “Shhhhhh” for the hundredth time, Fan ...
- Ferrell’s Jackie Moon too familiar — Whether you think Will Ferrell is a comedic genius or a one-joke actor, you can’t deny that the man can ...
- Holy Fuck plays ‘organic’ electro — If there’s something strange about an adult male playing a Fisher-Price keyboard, Graham Walsh can’t see it. But he’s not ...
- You’ll either hate or love Tellier's Sexuality — The famous German poet Christoph Martin Wieland wrote, “Music is the language for passions.” Sebastien Tellier seems to be determined ...
- It’s all in the exclamation mark for Los Campesinos! — The band from Wales has quickly built a fan base in the U.S.
Most recent Arts Stories
- Humor in 'Four Christmases' is too stale — "Four Christmases" makes up for tired tricks with a likeable cast.
- Justice's A Cross The Universe is sheer madness — Justice released their remixed, chaotic live album and documentary.
- The Abusers reunite 30 years later — Journalism professor Scott Swafford is a rock legend by night.
- Prince of Persia's risk pays off — Ubisoft expands on Prince of Persia's successful franchise.
- 'Punisher' is punishing to watch — What a disgusting, empty-headed whitesploitation movie this is. "Punisher: War Zone" is an exploitive film that doesn't seem to know ...