Christine and the Queens is back with an updated moniker, dawning on the name Redcar and announcing a new album, titled Redcar les adorables étoiles, for release on September 23.
This marks the third album for the French singer and former PAPER cover star — a follow-up to his 2020 album “La vita nuova,” which featured the jittery and melancholic synth-pop track “People, I’ve been sad.”
To celebrate the release of the upcoming album, Redcar will be putting on three musical productions “in the name of poetry,” with two being hosted at the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris on September 22 and 23 and with one at the Royal Festival Hall in London on September 30. Tickets for the mysterious events will go on sale later this month on July 21.
The news came after Redcar dropped the unexpected ‘80s style alt-electropop track "Je te vois enfin" late last month, which was self-produced by Redcar and mixed by frequent Kanye West and Travis Scott collaborator Mike Dean. The track featured a syncopated synth bass line that underpinned a retro drum machine and a lonely piano melody — swirling together in an ethereal world ready for Redcar’s assertive French-language vocal performances, layered one over the other.
It’s all a part of "a new era" for Redcar, one ushered in after a slew of successful collaborations over the past two years following the release of "La vita nuova." He lent his equally soft and powerful voice for the single "New Shapes" on Charli XCX’s record CRASH, having already collaborated with Charli on the track "Gone" off of her 2019 self-titled album Charli.
In May, Redcar was also featured on 070 Shake’s skittery and experimental track “Body,” with his voice surrounded by flourishes of angelic synths as a menacing lo-fi groove pounded away in the background, with both of their voices morphing throughout the trip of a track.
Redcar has also been exploring his gender since his last solo releases. The pansexual singer is now going by he/him pronouns, telling The New York Times in an interview, “My journey with gender has always been tumultuous. It’s raging right now, as I’m just exploring what is beyond this.” He continued on to say that he’d like to “tear down that system that made us label genders in such a strict way,” now embracing his masculine side and the overall fluidity of his gender.
Photo via Getty/ Kieran Frost/ Redferns