"Ceci n'est pas un cliché" Released: 27 January 2022
"Making Sense Stop" Released: 3 March 2022
Topical Dancer is a studio album by Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul and co-written and co-produced by Soulwax. Released on 4 March 2022 under the label Deewee, Topical Dancer is Adigéry and Pupul's debut album as a duo.
Background
Pupul and Adigéry are both based in Belgium with shared heritage from Martinique, a French island.[1] They first met while working for the soundtrack of Belgica, a 2016 Belgian drama, after being invited by Soulwax, who also co-wrote and co-produced the album.[2][3] The album is influenced by experiences of racial discrimination and sexual abuse.[4][2] In the album, Adigéry sings in English, Dutch, Creole, and French.[1] The album features Charlotte Adigéry's mother, Christiane Adigéry and was released under the label Deewee, which the duo previously released three EPs on.[1] "Thank You" is the lead single of Topical Dancer and the second single is "Blenda".[5][6] "Blenda" was released on 4 November 2021 along with an announcement of the album and its release date.[6] The first track of the album "Bel Deewee" is a field recording of Adigéry entering the Deewee recording complex, which is also where they recorded the album, and calling through the intercom.[7]
On the review aggregator Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, Topical Dancer received an average score of 85, based on six reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[8] Emily Mackay of The Observer called the album "banging fusion of funk, house and techno".[11] Paul Simpson of AllMusic claimed the album was "catchiest and most danceable songs Adigéry and Pupul have written to date" and that the lyrics "offer a lot of food for thought".[9] Eric Torres of Pitchfork called the album "riveting" and reported that the album had a "roguish charm".[3] Jasper Willems wrote on Beats Per Minute that Topical Dancer is "spiritual palette cleanser as much as it is a physical one" and "a record for literally anyone".[4] In a review written for NME, reviewer Max Pilley claimed that the album "arrived bursting with positive energy".[2]
