See Christine and the Queens Translate Mourning Into Movement in ‘Angels Crying in My Bed’ Video
Possession takes over Christine and the Queens in a new video for “Angels Crying in My Bed,” a track off Chris’ recently released Paranoïa, Angels, True Love album. In the clip, which showcases a live performance in the Vevo Studio, Chris twists and contorts his body, swiveling his pelvis and swaying jerkily like a marionette while singing about feeling lost and wondering if he’ll ever overcome his sadness. The music veers from R&B to pop to prog-rock in the space of four minutes as the song’s tone becomes more serious.
“I can hear the sweet sound of angels crying in my bed,” he sings mournfully as the lighting shifts from green to yellow to red, and Madonna, who doesn’t make an appearance, narrates a scene about a boy pondering Chris. “I owe him the truth of me,” Madonna says while Chris slowly collapses to his knees, arching his back.
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In a statement, Chris connected the song to his previous album — the prologue album, Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles — with the feelings of the character Prior in Tony Kushner’s play Angels in America. “Redcar felt colorful and absurd, like Prior sent to his insane dream space,” he said. “The follow-up Paranoïa, Angels, True Love is a key toward heart-opening transformation, a prayer toward the self — the one that breathes through all the loves it is made of.”
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Chris explained how he used the form of opera — structuring the new album into three acts — to achieve something different with the album. “When you say ‘opera,’ there is a need for structure: narration, point A, point B, some characters, and a clear arc,” he said. “My operatic form is fragmented: It’s like a succession of visions. I was interested in this hallucinatory dimension. Like in Angels in America, [the character] Prior is dying, and he’s seeing the angels. It’s like the fabric of space and time opens. I was questing for those sensations.”
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