Thousand - Au paradis (2020)

Stephane Milochevitch, aka Thousand, spent his adolescence in Texas and began playing drums at the age of seven. He then released his first folk album in 2008, followed by a second eponymous LP in 2018, produced by French singer Frederic Lo and published by Talitres. Following Le Tunnel Vegetal, this new album, Au Paradis, is the second to be entirely written in French. On Thousand's last album, Le Tunnel Vegetal, back in 2018, in light of the meanders, loops, and kaleidoscopic texts offered by his music, a certain form of deconstruction of pop conventions was being discussed. Of course, such specific features remain as strong today as they did then: Thousand's songs from his new LP Au Paradis seem to drift at breakneck speed through hallucinated landscapes. Oscillating between raw sincerity and biting irony, the narrative is punctuated by heavenly mists and emotional outbursts. Curly keyboards blend with majestic strings (courtesy of Bryce Dessner - The National, Clogs) sharp guitars and this strangely chanted phrasing, sometimes flirting with hip-hop. Coming back with a more assertive writing and an uninhibited production, Thousand's third album [with Talitres] takes you on a journey that is both acidic and dreamlike, touching on the most intimate aspects of being human. A journey that everyone will find something of themselves in.