Beyond the ghosts that haunt him, Mathieu Peudupin lets light into his world that is neither dark nor white, accompanied by Flora Fisbach or Marie-Flore.
After Rêve parti (2024), Lescop extends his transformation with a fourth album that arrives faster than usual. Still produced with Thibault Frisoni, his partner for two years, Polaroïds preserves the cold edges of the new wave but lets in more light.
Lescop has never really chosen between the leather of punk and the velvet of pop. He prefers the electricity that runs between the two. Since his hit La Forêt in 2012, his blue voice has traced the same territories – desire, solitude, cinema, sick love –, but with that slightly stiff elegance that also gives him his charm. Polaroïds does not renounce any of this inclination, but something has shifted.
Snapshots rather than a continuous narrative
The title signals the method: snapshots rather than a continuous story. Traces, Boulevards, Flashback, Blonde, Couleurs, Loup, Poèmes, as many fragments drawn from a moving sentimental memory. Lescop favors ellipses, silhouettes, and appearances.
Comète, the first track unveiled, is the perfect illustration. In two minutes, it brings forth emotion without overemphasizing it. The song races forward, bright and elusive, carried by the tension between a pop melody and the coldness of synth. A comet then, a frozen body that only becomes spectacular when it meets light.
The album also allows for a few new frictions. In its opening, Bleu welcomes Flora Fishbach, who answers with her ethereal and captivating voice. Marie-Flore, she joins with elegance among the eighties synth layers of Polaroïds. Special mention to the track Loup, a nocturnal tale that touches the heart and makes a detour – as much as a brief return – toward a darker new wave where the shadow of Taxi Girl lengthens.
Lescop has already lived several lives – Asyl, his rock band, Serpent, his postfunk project, cinema, the stage, literature with his first novel, Becoming a Wolf, which is released at the same time. With Polaroïds, he does not invent a new one: he gathers the previous ones within a single frame. His ghosts are still there, but the light has changed. This time, Mathieu Peudupin captures them in color.
Polaroïds (Labréa Music/Wagram). Release on October 30. In concert at La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris, on April 2, 2027.
