[All words by Sam Kontny]

I’d never heard of Lindstrøm or Christabelle before a few weeks ago (and both remain enigmatic even after my extensive sixty second Wikipedia search) but that’s beside the point: with the exponential popularity of dance-pop today, the market’s always flooded with passé bullshit that sounds the same as whatever came out last month. Not to be hyperbolic, but this is one of the more original LPs I’ve heard in the last year. He’s a euro producer, she’s a Maltese pop sensation, and their joint effort Real Life Is No Cool is their first full-length collaboration.

Lindstrøm & Christabelle – Looking For What

Lindstrøm’s production is a reverb-drenched synth opus that is part Michael Jackson, part Daft Punk, and part Madonna (for some reason I want to include New Order, too). Christabelle’s vocals are delicate and simple, almost verging on disinterested (so hip). As overplayed as that cocktail might sound, it’s not. She deadpans through tongue-in-cheek hooks about love and dancing with an effortless talk-sing style that drips with sex appeal.
From the cascading Korg hook of ‘Lovesick’ through the atmospheric throb of ‘Music In My Mind’ to the upbeat ‘Baby Can’t Stop,’ the album’s a prepackaged good time. I kept finding myself getting jiggy with it, even sober in the middle of the workday, and I don’t tend to do that for most music.

Lindstrøm & Christabelle – Lovesick

If that makes it sound like a rollercoaster of 120bpm-plus hits, you’ve got the wrong idea. You probably aren’t going to hear this at a college bar on a Friday night or a top 40 club downtown. This is the music you’ll hear on a Thursday night at a lounge bar, or what you’ll put on at four in the morning after the bar is closed or the party is over. At the same time, this doubles as what becomes really the only flaw in the album: that some people might pigeonhole it as “background music.” Whatever, haters.

I like to consider myself somewhat of a dance-electronica connoisseur, and this is like nothing that’s being produced right now. The formula of Lindstrøm’s expansive sounds and Christabelle’s icing-on-the-cake voice adds up to a genuinely good album; Real Life Is No Cool works like good ecstasy on a dancefloor.

If you are lucky enough to land the 3-disk Limited Edition version (which I can very easily find to download, but not to buy), you’ll likely be enjoying the modernized take on ‘Baby Can’t Stop’ by Aeroplane, as well as the chilled out italo version of ‘Looking For What’ by Sally Shapiro. On top of that you’ll find 42+ minutes more of Lindstrøm’s take on Little Drummer Boy, the first 25 minutes of which only toys with the song-title’s reference. If nothing more, these extras indicate the wide range Lindstrøm’s production capabilities extend to, and give the listener a new palate from which to appreciate an already amazing album.

Real Life Is No Cool is out tomorrow (1/19) on Smalltown Supersound.