Celeste has launched her second project in 2025, recovering the majesty of sixties melodies and French chanson. The British singer-songwriter thus builds a monumental intro for ‘Woman of Faces’, our Album of the Week. ‘On With The Show’ is the Song of the Day.
We can only fantasize about what ‘On With The Show’ would have been like had Robert Ames’s orchestral arrangements been included, discarded and described by Jeff Bhasker, the album’s producer, as “too avant-garde.” How can this be a negative thing? Even so, the song is not short on epicness.
‘On With The Show’ begins with nothing more than Celeste’s voice and a piano that accompanies it, while the percussion is added punctually to the mix. The great moment coincides with the phrase “there is the wave of strings”, which marks the moment in which the violins enter the song.
Celeste sings about “mausoleums made of birth, bricks and songs”, “choirs in constant rage” and songs about “tulips” and “small change”. The poetic lyrics are evocative and, just when it reaches its maximum level, in which the singer claims to have the band “under control”, it ends abruptly along with the entire song. Round.
