getting a furby, cat on a roomba, AR space goth, monkey puppet
June 29, 2019 12:31 PM Subscribe
Princess Chelsea (previously) is from New Zealand and swings twee like a sledgehammer, making tightly constructed big mood dreamy pop music and wonderfully, variously weird music videos. Wasting Time is high kitcsh pink hair singing into a flower with cows; Growing Older is a creepingly psychedelic home video collage.
Both are off her 2018 album, The Loneliest Girl, but boy howdy is there a lot more goodness from the last decade.
Princess Chelsea is the stage aka of Chelsea Nikkel; here's an interview with her about the latest album, her evolving music approach, internet music culture, and that time a brony set her song Cigarette Duet to some My Little Pony animation.
The music: velvet clear vocals, deeply hooky melodies, verbed-out mid-tempo arrangements that often mix the pop-sweet sheen of xylophones and sparkly synths with dirty droning guitars.
The videos: a swirling intersection of self-aware chroma key effects, direct stares, video filtering, costumes from glam to camp to cosplay, nostalgia-bait color grading, CGI weirdness, and subtle and overt psychedelic smears and disruptions. Half the fun in watching through her catalogue of videos is seeing some of the visual elements carry forward one to the next in the rolling collage of filmography.
Aside from the most recent album, you can also listen online to Lil' Golden Book and The Great Cybernetic Depression, and various singles.
But there's also a bunch of videos online! So, hey, how about a reverse chron walk through some of the previous Princess Chelsea videos posted by label Lil' Chief Records over the years?
2017: Morning Sun, Marianne Faithfull cover in twitchy (mostly) black and white
2016: Is It All OK? a literally glossier answer to Going To The Store
2015: Too Many People Kristen Stewart walking out of a rain storm and into a fog machine
2015 bonus: We Were Meant 2 B teen heartbreak drama vs. high music video minimalism
2014: No Church On Sunday aesthetic: 90s raytracing meets Robert Palmer vs. Stevie Nicks
2013: We're So Lost cyberpunk livestreaming and augmented reality riffs over a shimmery ballad
2012: Frack space kitsch and charmingly cheap CGI space battles
2012 bonus: Yulia featuring that dang cat
2011: Ice Reign staring contests and drinking diet coke incorrectly
2010: And I Love Her, nigh-underwater xylophone and synth Beatles cover
2009: Monkey Eats Banana which long threatens to be wordless before relenting
And if you want to peek past the chroma key detachment of the music videos to see Nikkel & co performing together live, you might enjoy In Session: Princess Chelsea, a half-hour of studio performances from 2012.
And with that I have fulfilled the oath I made to griphus a year ago today to make the supplemental Princess Chelsea post I wished the world to see, and I hereby thank him again for introducing me to her rad music and video work via MetaFilter.
Both are off her 2018 album, The Loneliest Girl, but boy howdy is there a lot more goodness from the last decade.
Princess Chelsea is the stage aka of Chelsea Nikkel; here's an interview with her about the latest album, her evolving music approach, internet music culture, and that time a brony set her song Cigarette Duet to some My Little Pony animation.
The music: velvet clear vocals, deeply hooky melodies, verbed-out mid-tempo arrangements that often mix the pop-sweet sheen of xylophones and sparkly synths with dirty droning guitars.
The videos: a swirling intersection of self-aware chroma key effects, direct stares, video filtering, costumes from glam to camp to cosplay, nostalgia-bait color grading, CGI weirdness, and subtle and overt psychedelic smears and disruptions. Half the fun in watching through her catalogue of videos is seeing some of the visual elements carry forward one to the next in the rolling collage of filmography.
Aside from the most recent album, you can also listen online to Lil' Golden Book and The Great Cybernetic Depression, and various singles.
But there's also a bunch of videos online! So, hey, how about a reverse chron walk through some of the previous Princess Chelsea videos posted by label Lil' Chief Records over the years?
2017: Morning Sun, Marianne Faithfull cover in twitchy (mostly) black and white
2016: Is It All OK? a literally glossier answer to Going To The Store
2015: Too Many People Kristen Stewart walking out of a rain storm and into a fog machine
2015 bonus: We Were Meant 2 B teen heartbreak drama vs. high music video minimalism
2014: No Church On Sunday aesthetic: 90s raytracing meets Robert Palmer vs. Stevie Nicks
2013: We're So Lost cyberpunk livestreaming and augmented reality riffs over a shimmery ballad
2012: Frack space kitsch and charmingly cheap CGI space battles
2012 bonus: Yulia featuring that dang cat
2011: Ice Reign staring contests and drinking diet coke incorrectly
2010: And I Love Her, nigh-underwater xylophone and synth Beatles cover
2009: Monkey Eats Banana which long threatens to be wordless before relenting
And if you want to peek past the chroma key detachment of the music videos to see Nikkel & co performing together live, you might enjoy In Session: Princess Chelsea, a half-hour of studio performances from 2012.
And with that I have fulfilled the oath I made to griphus a year ago today to make the supplemental Princess Chelsea post I wished the world to see, and I hereby thank him again for introducing me to her rad music and video work via MetaFilter.
Actually, I gotta admit that "I Love My Boyfriend" kinda makes Carly Rae sound like Elizabeth Warren discussing her new plan for eliminating undue corporate financial influence on government. Maybe a little sledgehammer.
posted by ckridge at 2:35 PM on June 29, 2019
posted by ckridge at 2:35 PM on June 29, 2019
my word is that twee! It's hitting at least 1 milliTrixie'sBigRedMotorbike.
posted by scruss at 2:47 PM on June 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by scruss at 2:47 PM on June 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
Thanks for this, I hadn't heard of her and am now completely charmed.
posted by bile and syntax at 6:52 AM on June 30, 2019
posted by bile and syntax at 6:52 AM on June 30, 2019
Ha, I thought "oh, it's like The Brunettes but with more languid music", but of course since this is Aotearoa Princess Chelsea used to be in The Brunettes, and Jonathan Bree is in the Cigarette Duet. (But where is Heather Mansfield?)
I will be listening to these all day.
posted by wilberforce at 2:58 PM on June 30, 2019
I will be listening to these all day.
posted by wilberforce at 2:58 PM on June 30, 2019
Gosh, I like this a lot. Goth twee is a thing I didn't realize I needed.
posted by sleeping bear at 11:39 AM on July 5, 2019
posted by sleeping bear at 11:39 AM on July 5, 2019
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posted by ckridge at 2:13 PM on June 29, 2019