Charlène Darling "NON MON GARÇON" (Lexi Disques, 2022)

Belgian label Lexi Disques won a little piece of Not Unloved's heart last year with the release of Lawrence Le Doux and Roger 3000's huggable "Creme/Caramel" single and they've repeated the trick in 2022 with Charlène Darling's bare bones but incredibly catchy "NON MON GARÇON" 7". From just whip-crack drums and a plaintive, at times double-tracked, vocal, Darling has conjured up a memorable slice of melodic Stereo Total-style pop that takes up residence in your brain with the result that you'll catch yourself unwittingly tapping out its rhythm and humming its melody as you go about your daily chores. Darling released an album in October 2019. It's high time Not Unloved became acquainted with it!

Charlène Darling · NON MON GARÇON (7" 2022, side A)

Creme/Caramel

It's not always the BIG statements or grand gestures that linger longest in the memory. Sometimes the whispered lines are the ones that strike a chord. "Creme" by Lawrence Le Doux and Roger 3000 (Lexi Disques, 2021) is a case in point. There's no sledgehammer riffing, no polemics are delivered just, well, easy to love soft exotica sounds that massage the temples and whisper in your ear that everything is gonna be alright. There's not a single aspect of it that I'd change. I love the way the recording starts as if the performance had been going on for quite some time before someone remembered to hit record and I love the way it runs out of puff at the end as if lulled by its own dreaminess into a warm, welcome torpor. One of the most adorable pieces of music to grace one side of a piece of 7" vinyl in 2021 to Not Unloved's ears. "Caramel" on the other side is equally lovely but introduces elements of wide-eyed radiophonic wonder to the mix. It's surely destined to soundtrack a short nature documentary about tiny organisms. Seek it out if you like pretty things!