Without losing any of her intimate and bold writing, the singer opens wide her universe to electronic music, supported among others by Caroline Polachek, SebastiAn, Justice, or Soulwax.
There’s something deeply gratifying about the feeling of rediscovering, after having quite frankly doubted it, everything we once loved about an artist. We can only feel excited when encountering Angèle’s Instinct, Nonante-cinq (2021), which didn’t move us as much as the explosive breakthrough of Brol (2018) where, with her suave, jazzy voice, the Belgian singer and musician embodied a DIY pop that seemed sugary on the surface yet militant in its approach, carried by lyrics that were both introspective and ironic when it came to narrating her small tribulations and her great existential tug‑of‑wars.
A proven method applied to Instinct, where Angèle, now 30 years old, sings whatever she wants, in both French and English, sometimes audaciously mixing the two, and does not hesitate to pay homage to the invigorating French Touch she listened to as a child. And even though the album was largely conceived at the piano, it opens itself up to other influences.
Angèle’s lyrics always view from a sensitive angle
Justice delivers the irresistible single What You Want, the compatriots of Soulwax electrify the club-ready Trop, SebastiAn and (the marvelous) Caroline Polachek have fun on the hedonistic Love Triangle, Oscar Scheller contributed to the synthetic F4ck 4ever. Yet Instinct is by no means a lazy album of collaborations.
Born from a four-handed, intimate collaboration with Tristan Salvati, it manipulates sonic textures until they morph — Angèle’s voice even takes on the feel of an electric guitar on Tout décider. Their fruitful rapport is audible on the ballad Je compte with hard-edged undertones and on feverish electropop anthems such as Dis-le. As for the lyrics, they always view things through a sensitive lens.
The emotional dependency (Au revoir), the uncertainty of early love (F4ck 4ever), the breakup (On verra), the dilapidated state of our feelings and of our societies (Une seule vie), the refusal to accept the surrounding violence (Trop), or the lineage she tenderly addresses in Je sais, addressed to her musician father, Marka. Finally, Angèle leaves us with a beautiful NYC Blues crafted alone, above the tumult, in her room — which remains, despite her thirst for movement, her best playground.
Instinct (GGL Records/Sony Music). Release on October 16, 2026. In concert at the Accor Arena, Paris, on March 8, 9, 10 and 12, 2027.
