Image
New Releases

Parisian Sydney Valette Examines Heartbreak and Isolation With His “Home Alone” LP

The lushness of Sydney Valette’s sixth LP, Home Alone, resonates. As a product of the pandemic, the new album deals with heartbreak and isolation—the very rudiments of the past couple years.

Home Alone found Valette looking to the beginnings of his music career that started in 2005: alone in a room, at home… preferably at Christmas hour. Emotions are high throughout as his pop-derived song structures delegate both dancing and sorrow. There are moments of darkwave, EBM, post-punk and Italo-disco—even rave signatures decorate the vastness of Home Alone‘s twelve tracks.

Valette, who is based in Paris, prides himself on obtaining the “highest levels of vision and discipline” via his art. This precision is apparent as one listens to the LP in its entirety—marked with interludes, the producer has created a complete tome of synth-based music. “Pandora” is energetic and forceful; magnetic in its vocals and synth line, it’s clear Home Alone makes no apologies from the start. Followed by “Station Stop,” the song’s beat is undeniably danceable, and “Mistress of Desire” inhabits a beautiful tension.

While each song on the LP is catchy in its composition, “Crystal Heart” is the standout track with its house-inspired synths and bouncy bassline. “Adieu” derives from Valette’s previous darkwave productions (and is sung in French) while “Warchild” is aggressively EBM in its delivery. Finally, Home Alone ends with “Citadel,” a haunting instrumental track that takes one final pull of the heartstrings before Valette bids farewell in a most dramatic manner.

Home Alone is a journey of emotions: from upbeat to melancholy, the LP tells a story of Valette’s heartbreak—something in which we can all relate.

Buy Home Alone via Bandcamp or Young & Cold. Follow Sydney Valette on IG.

Andi Harriman

Andi Harriman is the author of "Some Wear Leather, Some Wear Lace: The Worldwide Compendium of Postpunk and Goth in the 1980s." She resides in Brooklyn, New York where she writes, DJs and lectures on all things dark and gloomy.

Recent Posts

  • Bands

Toronto Shoegazers Rituals Debut Hazy Post-Punk Single “Illusions”

Toronto shoegaze outfit Rituals first stirred to life in 2009, a quiet experiment in Adam Seward’s small, dim room, where…

18 hours ago
  • Bands

Filled with Fire — Swiss Cold Wavers Future Faces Unveil Video for “Neon Outlines”

Filled with fire Come to me Suspended with so much pleasure No matter how scared we may be To live…

18 hours ago
  • Bands

Starlight Star Bright — Icelandic Trio Kælan Mikla Pull Down the Veil of Night in Their Video for “Stjörnuljós”

Be a starlight once more that guides me in the dead of night and when your fire weakens I shall…

2 days ago
  • Bands

Qual Unleashes Sci-Fi Apocalyptic Video for Primal EBM Jam “Funeral Fashion”

Sarcophagus golden carcass Sarcophagus rigor mortis Drenched in cataclysm and curled in dystopian dread, Qual—William Maybelline’s fierce alter ego—seizes the…

3 days ago
  • Bands

Los Angeles Duo Faith In Flesh Inject Chilling EBM and Darkwave into Their Unsettling Video for “Psychodermatology”

Skin sloughed off Exposed rot Sickness spied Wet, weak eyes Lacerated soul Psychodermatology is a medical field that studies the…

4 days ago
  • Bands

Philadelphia’s Cigarettes for Breakfast Prescribe Heartrending Shoegaze Panacea “Numb the Pain”

Loving something you shouldn’t is like clutching a live wire—painful, charged, and impossible to release. You know it’s wrong, yet…

4 days ago
Sticky Footer Banner with Close Button