Lindstrøm & Christabelle: Real Life Is No Cool

Lindstrøm & Christabelle
Real Life Is No Cool

(Feedelity/Smalltown Supersound)

Hans-Peter Lindstrøm’s 2008 album, Where You Go I Go Too, repurposed disco as elegantly articulated filibuster. It was a blowsy balloon of Balearic bombast, as indulgent as a ’70s prog-rock group releasing a triple live LP in a multiple gatefold sleeve. And, in this age of diminished attention spans, one imagines that it took serious willpower for most listeners to get through Where You Go‘s three epic tracks (clocking in at 55 minutes total) without frequent fast-forwarding.

Those expecting a reprise of that work’s ambitious expansiveness will be shocked by Real Life Is No Cool, Lindstrøm’s sleek, slick new collaboration with Norwegian-Mauritian singer Christabelle Sandoo. Here, Lindstrøm produces 10 relatively concise songs that cut to the chase, ushering you to the dance floor and/or the boudoir with an efficiency that’s more urgently erotic than mechanically clinical.

The disc starts quirkily with “Looking for What,” as Lindstrøm twists Christabelle’s voice into an Annette Peacock–like scat-­arabesque for about 40 seconds before some tight, Moroder-ish pulsations start and Christabelle queries in a weary manner, “What should we do? Should we start? Should we stop? Should we stop looking? Looking for what?” Way not to get this party started, Hans-Peter. But “Lovesick” follows with a classic cosmic-­disco bump suffused in lead-limbed, postcoital drugginess, its bright piano motif punctuating the vocal refrain in piquant contrast to the lasciviously laggard rhythm.

Cool‘s nadir is “Keep It Up,” whose saccharine electro pop is as tinsel-y and ickily dewy as Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature.” Better Jacko jacking animates “Baby Can’t Stop,” a Nordic facsimile of Off the Wall‘s insouciant, intricately rhythmed R&B. Also derivative, “Let’s Practise” tips its stacked heels to Moroder/Summer’s “I Feel Love,” a track so awesome that even its endless inferior iterations—like this one—get a free pass.

Cool‘s most pleasant surprise occurs on “Let It Happen,” L&C’s devotional rendition of Vangelis’s gorgeous 1973 prog-rock gem, which they turn into a methodical Zen-disco meditation. Throughout Cool, Christabelle exudes a subdued sensuality; she’s not a spectacularly distinctive singer, but the world already has enough histrionics-prone divas, so cheers for that.

Real Life Is No Cool is an interesting confection, but it’s not the optimal platform for Lindstrøm’s talents. Still, let’s hope that such a tangent presages more unpredictability from this producer. May I suggest a skweee reinterpretation of jazz guitarist Terje Rypdal’s oeuvre?