Released: 04/03/22
*DREAMHOUSE ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2022*
It may only be February, but with their debut album, Topical Dancer (released March 4), the Belgium-based duo of Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Popul have already made a case for the dance album of the year. Imagine an Acid-inflected Italo Disco record that has the art-pop vocal chops of Laurie Anderson, throwing in a pinch of ESG for good measure, and you wouldn’t be too far off the mark.
Equally remarkable are Adigéry’s lyrics. French-born and of Belgian-Caribbean lineage, the singer’s beautifully stark and poetic lyrics deal with colonialism head on, with lead track ‘Blenda’, partly inspired by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, opening with the gut-punch of a line, “Go back to your country where you belong”, before going on to delineate how she feels like “a product of colonialism”. For anyone doubtful as to whether cutting edge dance music can also be effective politically, Topical Dancer is the perfect riposte. Stunning.