“Lil' Golden Book” will be a treat for all lovers of melody, musicality and originality. Princess Chelsea has spent three years getting this album just right and the result is an intriguing, multi-layered album bursting with sweet synth-pop tunes. Though if you listen a little closer, you might just hear something a little more twisted and ominous coming to the surface…
Princess Chelsea is a female composer and bedroom recording artist. Her early training was in classical music, but she gained her name as a member of well-respected “circus punk” group, Teenwolf. She also toured internationally as a member of the Brunettes during 2008 and 2009. Rolling Stone has described Princess Chelsea's music as “absolutely sublime”, others have described it as “unique, eerie and ethereal” or as if “Yann Tiersen composed the soundtrack to the next Wes Anderson film”. However we at Lil' Chief prefer to describe her music as “the soundtrack to an old Disney movie meets Kraftwerk fronted by Enya in a 60s production of Les Mis… set in space”.
The album is a collection of stories about growing up as a teenager / young adult in modern New Zealand and is given to us in the form of a “Lil' Golden Book”. Everyday situations of love, loss and petty jealousies are presented as some kind of bizarre laymans fairy-tale. On many of the tracks, Princess Chelsea's lush, orchestral arrangements are wryly juxtaposed with her dry, sardonic lyrics. This is best displayed on “Overseas” (a duet with label mate Lawrence Arabia) – a philosophical and slightly cynical take on the New Zealand O.E. and truly one of the most original patriotic anthems we at Lil' Chief have heard for a long time. Princess Chelsea also duets with co-producer Jonathan Bree (The Brunettes) in ‘The Cigarette Duet’, (a straight up 60s pop gem and her most accessible moment on the album) – with a witty take on the issues of cigarette smoking in a relationship. Pretty pop-friendly ballads like ‘Too Fast To Live’ and ‘Yulia’ are full of subtleties and surprises (a sly nod to the Dance Exponents, quotes from an infamous 3 news interview) and are off-set by more off beat and experimental arrangements like ‘Monkey Eats Bananas’ and ‘Caution Repetitive’.
The second half of Lil' Golden Book maintains its melody-driven musicality whilst venturing off into electronic territory with the epic 70s sci-fi styled “Frack”, and glorious six-minute electronic symphony “Goodnight Little Robot Child” – a high point on the album. The closing track on the album “Ice Reign (Reprise)” – is an instrumental lynch-esque reimagining of an earlier track (‘Ice Reign’) and seems to tie the many musical elements presented on the album (orchestral pop, classical, electronic, soundscape) back together again for a glorious and beautiful finale.