Like any decade, the pop music of the 1960’s had it’s own set of characteristics that would define the era. The bubblegum sweetness of Brill Building girl groups is one of those that continues to be revived and reinterpreted to this day. There aren’t many musicians that do this in a more eerie and unsettling way than Cindy Lee.
Cindy Lee, Patrick Flegel’s drag persona, is back with a new record: What’s Tonight to Eternity. Flegel took inspiration from Karen Carpenter, Patsy Cline, and The Supremes (1) and while the sound of these pop giants of yesteryear can be heard throughout the LP, it’s enveloped in a cavernous atmosphere of unease.
What’s Tonight to Eternity feels like listening to the ghosts of performances past in a haunted concert hall. The seats and carpet have been removed, the curtains ripped, and through the fog, Flegel’s disembodied voice reverberates around the room. Thin synth melodies dance around organ drones, sometimes accompanied by crackly string sections and at other times overtaken by shrill noise-laden spheres of guitars. A moment of clarity amidst the echoey catacombs arrives with the haunting closing monologue of “Lucifer Stand”, in which a former follower of Satan recalls breaking things off to free herself from the dark grip that pulled her into Hell. It’s a harrowing end to a track that with it’s incredibly hooky opening synth line could have gone in a very direction as a Depeche Mode-like synthpop hit. But curse wins over convention with the spectre-esque sounds of Cindy Lee, and this new record creates a world that is as beautiful and delicate as it is unnerving and ugly.
Listen to What’s Tonight To Eternity below and purchase the album here.