Topical Dancer
2022 album by Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Topical Dancer is a studio album by Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul and co-written and co-produced by Soulwax. Released on 4 March 2022 under the label Deewee, Topical Dancer is Adigéry and Pupul's debut album as a duo.
| Topical Dancer | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 4 March 2022 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 50:43 | |||
| Language | Creole, Dutch, English, French | |||
| Label | Deewee | |||
| Producer |
| |||
| Charlotte Adigéry chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Bolis Pupul chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Topical Dancer | ||||
| ||||
Background
Pupul and Adigéry are both based in Belgium with shared heritage from Martinique, a French island.[1] They first met while working for the soundtrack of Belgica, a 2016 Belgian drama, after being invited by Soulwax, who also co-wrote and co-produced the album.[2][3] The album is influenced by experiences of racial discrimination and sexual abuse.[4][2] In the album, Adigéry sings in English, Dutch, Creole, and French.[1] The album features Charlotte Adigéry's mother, Christiane Adigéry and was released under the label Deewee, which the duo previously released three EPs on.[1] "Thank You" is the lead single of Topical Dancer and the second single is "Blenda".[5][6] "Blenda" was released on 4 November 2021 along with an announcement of the album and its release date.[6] The first track of the album "Bel Deewee" is a field recording of Adigéry entering the Deewee recording complex, which is also where they recorded the album, and calling through the intercom.[7]
Critical reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 85/100[8] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [9] |
| Beats Per Minute | 88/100[4] |
| DIY | [10] |
| NME | [2] |
| Pitchfork | 8.2/10[3] |
| The Observer | [11] |
| The Skinny | [1] |
On the review aggregator Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, Topical Dancer received an average score of 85, based on six reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[8] Emily Mackay of The Observer called the album "banging fusion of funk, house and techno".[11] Paul Simpson of AllMusic claimed the album was "catchiest and most danceable songs Adigéry and Pupul have written to date" and that the lyrics "offer a lot of food for thought".[9] Eric Torres of Pitchfork called the album "riveting" and reported that the album had a "roguish charm".[3] Jasper Willems wrote on Beats Per Minute that Topical Dancer is "spiritual palette cleanser as much as it is a physical one" and "a record for literally anyone".[4] In a review written for NME, reviewer Max Pilley claimed that the album "arrived bursting with positive energy".[2]
The album was nominated for Best Electronic Record at the 2023 Libera Awards.[12][13]
In October 2025, Paste ranked the album at number 232 on their "250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far" list, writing: "Topical Dancer is a science experiment left unsupervised by a professor, but in turn yields a result of the future of electronic music."[14]
Track listing
All tracks are written and produced by Charlotte Adigéry, Bolis Pupul (Boris Zeebroek) and Soulwax (David Dewaele and Stephen Dewaele).
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Bel Deewee" | 0:42 |
| 2. | "Esperanto" | 3:34 |
| 3. | "Blenda" | 3:31 |
| 4. | "Hey" | 3:36 |
| 5. | "It Hit Me" | 5:33 |
| 6. | "Ich Mwen" (with Christiane Adigéry) | 4:17 |
| 7. | "Reappropriate" | 5:06 |
| 8. | "Ceci n'est pas un cliché" | 3:46 |
| 9. | "Huile Smisse" | 2:56 |
| 10. | "Mantra" | 4:21 |
| 11. | "Making Sense Stop" | 4:00 |
| 12. | "Haha" | 3:26 |
| 13. | "Thank You" | 5:51 |
| Total length: | 50:43 | |