HAUTE & FREDDY - Big Disgrace

According to the annals of fashion, Coco Chanel used to suggest looking at yourself in the mirror and always removing one accessory before leaving the house to attend to the duties of Parisian high society. But today high society is just an unreachable mirage, while the dominant taste takes the shape of an endless algorithmic recycling. After all, why censor your own impulses if tomorrow isn't promised to anyone? If there are influencers with houses entirely decorated in beige chasing bland trends like quiet luxury and the billionaire mindset, then there must also be a noisy counterpart to aspire to.

In music, the unexpected success of Chappell Roan has illustrated the desire, at least among the younger crowd, for gaudy colors and maximalist scaffolding, an escape into the ephemeral as an antidote to the perpetual creeping anxiety of the news cycle. Nothing new, of course: economics already has a theory observing the height of heels in relation to GDP trends, as the glam rockers and disco dancers discovered back in the Seventies. To some, today's social-media era might look like a padded parlor compared to the years of lead, but that doesn't change the fact that today's listener needs just as much escape from their own troubles.

Michelle Bunz (vocals) and Lance Shipp (keyboards, drums) cut their teeth in the Los Angeles record industry as songwriters for hire, a job that was even lucrative and clearly quite useful, but one in which they couldn't find an outlet of their own. So, after a trip to the antiques market, they transformed themselves into Haute & Freddy, a kind of joyfully ridiculous traveling circus that never loses sight of melody. Their debut album "Big Disgrace" offers baroque flourishes over crisp synth-pop structures, as if splitting the difference between Kate Bush, Broadway musicals, and a prayer card of Cyndi Lauper pinned to the music stand.

The visual side is served by a series of raucous videos shot inside a trunk of carnival costumes alongside a motley crew of "Freaks". There's "Scantily Clad", a clear libertine invitation set to a Goldfrapp-style beat, then the choral hedonism of "Sweet Surrender" and "Dance The Pain Away", tailor-made to get crowds moving on the tour already scheduled to accompany the album's release. The duo's ethos is fully satisfied by unambiguous tracks such as "Fashion Over Function", built around a tight synth pattern in the style of Tubeway Army, the aggressive "Femme Hysteria", a step away from the queer ruckus of Charli XCX, and of course the lavish "Fields Of Versailles" – the band's fans have already jokingly been dubbed "the royal court".

There's no shortage, though, of more personal portraits carried by the singer's lovely voice, such as the introspective "Shy Girl", the heartfelt Eighties-style sunset ballad "Showgirl At Heart", and above all a "Sophie" that, without a shred of shame, flirts with the old Fleetwood Mac songbook.

If "Anti-Superstar" can be read as the record's manifesto, it's with the anthem "I Like My People Weird" that Haute & Freddy forge a pact with their chosen audience, proving that, with a bit of eyeliner and some healthy pop communication, it's still possible to build an engaging string of vignettes about vices, scandals and revolutions.

Sure, it's true that the record remains a very radio-friendly affair, and at times the simplicity of the execution betrays that background as songwriters for hire mentioned above (and we're talking about people of the caliber of Britney Spears and Katy Perry) – an aspect that becomes glaring whenever the opposite is suggested: on the opening "Symphony For A Queen", in fact, the pair weave progressive arrangements with that slightly overblown taste typical of Last Dinner Party and Florence Welch, showing they have the ambition to back up the flashy visual world they've built. No matter, Haute & Freddy are too likeable and "Big Disgrace" is one of the most fun debuts of the year.

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28/03/2026