Author of "The Birth And Impact Of Britpop: Mis-Shapes, Scenesters And Insatiable Ones"
“Why am I awake before my alarm goes off every day?”
Exactly.
Adigéry and Pupul filled “Topical Dancer” with warmth, wit, insight, intelligence, revelations, laughter, joy, questions, sort of answers, loopy loops, brains, beauty, and God only knows what else.
“Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are provocateurs, pop culture/counter-culture anarcho terrorists. Playing by the rules, but only the ones they have written. Drawing on their own culture and cultural experiences to create block rockin’, body poppin’, heart stoppin’, beats and breaks. It is difficult to imagine another record being released this year, maybe in any year, that is so profoundly personal and utterly universal at the same time.
If anyone writes a line that is sharper, braver, funnier or more perfect than “Go back to your country where you belong, Siri can you tell me where I belong?”, then I will eat all the bucket hats in Knebworth this summer. Just read it again before you get all bent out of shape trying to tell me that “Superficial feelings, it’s hard to take it easy, underneath the red sun, everything’s electric” is even in the same universe, let alone league. It’s a grand take down of racism delivered with such style and humour that it leaves you weak at the knees.
The whole album is stuffed to overflowing with political statements that, in the hands of a dullard like Billy Bragg would sound about as interesting as a fringe meeting at the Socialist Workers Party annual conference. But Adigéry and Pupul are smoother, smarter and sassier. Listening is a pleasure and not a chore, the messages delivered with such subtlety and humour that you welcome them. That is no mean feat. Politics in pop is often about as welcome as a comedian bringing a guitar on stage for a “funny” song.”
(Our Sound Music, 15/03/2022)