If anyone knows what’s going on with the artist née Christine and the Queens, now FKA Redcar, it’s likely Chris himself. Last year’s sprawling (and at times, brilliant) Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue) proved divisive at best, compounded only by a confusing rebrand that never quite landed with the French singer’s label or audience. Confusion, it seems, is essential to the journey Chris has found himself on. Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue) serves as the starting point, a swirling fever dream of surreal imagery and absurd Dadaist performance art that sees Chris contemplate the futility of gender by way of his own identity. If that whole album was about artifice, then To Be Honest hits like an alcohol swab to a face full of clown makeup, wiping the slate (and Chris) clean.
Heralding the opening of part two of whatever trip we’ve set off on, To Be Honest is a starkly barebones ballad that works in classic Christine and the Queens tropes. It’s sung gently, pensively even, over a swelling backdrop of synths that threaten to crescendo in dazzlingly epic fashion at any moment. A hydraulic motorik pulse begins to beat faintly in the distance, receding at the song’s reverb laden bridge, before it climaxes in a triumphant albeit hazy electric guitar solo. It’s one of those grandiose 80’s power ballads in the vein of Pat Benetar, delivered with the quiet romance that has come to be considered a Christine and the Queens signature. It’s the exact opposite of the approach Chris takes on Redcar, no artifice or braggadocious swagger, no distancing techniques through which to observe the personal. “I’ve been through so much / That sometimes it feels far / It is like a movie played by another star,” he confesses with a heartfelt earnestness that distinguishes Christine and the Queens (this artist) from Redcar.
Download and stream To Be Honest here
To Be Honest is the sort of song that will have longtime fans clamouring, with more revisit value for them than any of the singles off Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue). Which begs the question: is this the true next phase in the Redcar multiverse, or a tactical course correction? That in To Be Honest’s evocative music video, Chris returns to the bare faced, blazer wearing avatar performing Alvin Aiely movement sequences that fans know best might suggest the latter. But as the lead single off an album that retells Angels In America reportedly narrated by Madonna, this journey may turn back into the bizarre at any moment.
Watch the music video for To Be Honest below
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