About

Willing to embrace artifice and genre-hop well beyond his expected limitations, this French producer returns with an erotic synth-pop album of unexpected charm and grace.

Sébastien Tellier shares little sonically with fellow French shapeshifter Serge Gainsbourg, but he has adopted some of the man's most endearing sensibilities, namely, an embrace of artifice and a willingness to genre-hop well beyond his expected limitations. Gainsbourg made worthwhile reggae and art rock records chiefly because he approached each style fearlessly, unaware or uncaring of how these records would look amongst the rest of his work; Tellier stepped well outside his comfort zone-- and not necessarily successfully-- on 2004's world music experiment Politics before shifting to groovy (literally) soundtrack work on 2006's Sessions. Sexuality, his fourth album, moves toward erotic synth-pop in what might be a more stereotypically French pursuit, but Tellier's willingness to engage the material without contempt or parody leads to an album of unexpected charm and grace. - Pitchfork