Telling tales?
The press release that accompanies "Broadway" the new single by Sebastien Tellier describes him rather pretentiously as "an indomitable post mortal, a poet and a wild man of many talents". Unfortunately this rather messy mix of dated beats, soporific strings, brass and barely distinguishable vocals fail to support such boastful claims. It's hard to see what Tellier is trying to achieve here with this ode to Captain Rico from Robert Heinlein's 1959 sci-fi novel "Starship Troopers". The tempo of "Broadway" is too flighty and almost jazz like to dance to in a club and the lack of an obvious pop hook makes it a similarly odd choice for a single. One time Kylie collaborator Mr Dan does his best to untangle this mess by pulling together the diverging threads and accentuating Tellier's obvious debt to Serge Gainsbourg. But just like Chicken Lips (who endeavours to work some electro magic with this track) he's ultimately hindered by the lacklustre source material.