Thursday 7/9: Christine and the Queens—"Eyes of a Child"
Today, we share our thoughts on the new song from the French pop singer/songwriter Christine and the Queens.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him) and Eric Bennett (they/them). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. Now we’re, also a M-F newsletter about songs. Our format is simple: a link to a song and a short take from each of us about what we think of it. Each day of the week has a corresponding genre: Monday is indie, Tuesday is punk, Wednesday is hip-hop, Thursday is pop, and Friday is misc.
Today, we share our thoughts on the new song from the French pop singer/songwriter Christine and the Queens.
Christine and the Queens—"Eyes of a Child"
Eric Bennett:
Between 2018’s Chris and this year’s La vita nuova, Christine and the Queens’ Heloise Letissier has been a force for inventive, vibrant pop. While her music has long been fit for the dancefloor, it’s also always been a little bit sad. As much is to be expected from an artist whose debut’s title translates to “human pain.” Embellished with strings and a rippling synth, she sounds stark and stirring on the one-off single “Eyes of a child.” Letissier is great at evoking raw emotion in her delivery, and this is a rare moment where the party has ended, leaving her singing to an empty room. It feels like a rare glimpse at true, wounded vulnerability, rather than removed veneer presented on a song of hers like “People, I’ve been sad.”
Eli Enis:
I had never heard of the Amazon Prime series Hanna until I learned Christine and the Queens had written a song for it, but after a mere ten seconds of listening to “Eyes of a Child” I could already start to visualize the type of scene it could be used in. The entire first half of the song is just Heloise Letissier singing with quiet intensity over muted piano notes that are dunked in delay. Suddenly, a guitar comes plucking in and the song swells into a luscious dream-pop tune, with Letissier’s vocals drenched in reverb and illuminating the background as fluttering strings gather around a meandering guitar solo. It’s a truly breathtaking musical climax in a song that’s otherwise incredibly minimal, and then everything halts as Letissier’s voice bursts back in during the last ten seconds, belting the hook one last time. By the time it’s over I don’t actually need to see this show, there’s enough drama and beauty in this song alone to tide me over.