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Music Review

03 December 2008 04:33 BST

Sebastian Tellier – Sexuality

Friday, 22 Feb 2008 18:16
Sebastien Tellier is claimed to be the modern day Serge Gainsbourg

Other Reviews 

Lucky Number, released 25th February.

In a nutshell…

80's Electro-pop yawn-fest

What's it all about?

The third album from Sebastian Tellier, Sexuality combines all the requisite elements of electronic-edged pop with a breathy French-voiced twist. As a musical statement, Sexuality has been crafted by Tellier as the ultimate soundtrack to love-making.

Who's it by?

Cited as a modern day Serge Gainsbourg, Sebastian Tellier is a French singer, song writer, instrumentalist and actor whose father played with infamous nihilist French prog rockers Magma.

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys?

Chances are slim to none

What the others say

"Will Sexuality see Tellier take his place in the mainstream alongside Daft Punk and Air? Probably not – his sound is just a little too languid for the pop marketplace…" – Louis Patterson, BBC Music

"Lacking the compulsivity of his Parisian peers' techno scrawl and potent electro fluro-jabs, it's all a bit of a passing gentle wind rather than mesmerising electro squall but plenty to suggest that the electro-pop don has far from blown his load" – Samuel Strang, Drowned in Sound

So is it any good?

Sexuality is a trip back in time that, while hypnotic, is meaningless as a soundtrack for life now. Tellier's album is said to have touches of 80s inspired pop and disco but I would go as far to say that this touch radiates so heavily through the record that it takes it over completely.

To compare Tellier to Daft Punk and Air seems unfair and perhaps all too easy, yet it is hard not to when Guy Manuel De Homem-Christo (of Daft Punk) produced this album. Though the sounds Tellier offer are reminiscent of a time when shoulder pads weren't ironic, one can only guess that he was aiming more for an album more edgy-Daft-Punk than backing-tunes-to-old-Sonic-the-Hedgehog-games. Tellier lacks the catchiness of Air's languid and free-flowing electro ballads and doesn't have the melodic mix-mastery or intelligence that made Daft Punk the poster boys of French electric pop.

Unfortunately for listeners, there is little that is fresh or new about this album and this fact makes it a wasted effort. Though some tracks, namely Kilometer, aren't that bad, they're not that good either. The mixture of French and English lyrics could have been more effective yet do nothing to inspire interest. The many female "Oooohs" and "Ahhhs" on Pomme left me a little cold and, for an album made especially for "love-making", cold is the opposite of what Tellier is going for.

Sexuality - tres sexy? Ah, non.

1/10

Louise Cadell

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