Diamond Jubilee by Cindy Lee — Album Review
Diving into this hazy world of melody and memory
It’s late afternoon. You find yourself rummaging through your grandparents’ attic looking for some nondescript memento. Warm shafts of light project from the westward window. Motes of dust luminate in the rays of sunlight. It’s hard to breathe from the dust and sweltering heat. As you fumble about, you stumble upon an old chest, no different from the others littering the space. Something inexplicable compels you to peer inside.
As you crack it open you see countless small black discs. Inspecting further reveals these to be old 45s, warped and encrusted with thick layers of dust from years of neglect. What songs are on these old records? Are they still enjoyable? Does anyone even care about these anymore?
It is in these shallow grooves that the ethos of Cindy Lee’s “Diamond Jubilee” resides.
Cindy Lee is the drag persona and recording project of Canadian songsmith Patrick Flegel. Flegel is best known for their output with the Calgary post-punk group, Women, acting as guitarist and lead vocalist. After the dissolution of Women and the passing of guitarist Christopher Reimer, the members split into two projects. Patrick Flegel formed Cindy Lee and the remaining members, Matt Flegel (brother of Patrick) and Michael Walker, formed Viet Cong, now known as Preoccupations.
While Preoccupations from the outset felt like a natural transition from the sound of Women, Cindy Lee took a different turn. The project embraced harsh noise textures while adopting a Brill Building girlpop image and sonic leaning.
After 2020’s “What’s Tonight to Eternity” and “Cat O’ Nine Tails” released to moderate mainstream attention, Flegel began to record for a final outing to cap off the Cindy Lee project. In late March after several album title changes in the preceding months, the recordings were quietly released to the public.
This project is “Diamond Jubilee”, a staggering double album packed tight with 32 songs coming to just a hair over 2 hours. “Diamond Jubilee” is an anomaly in today’s recording industry in many ways. Before even mentioning the music itself, the album is not available on any streaming sites or online storefronts. The only ways to listen are by either streaming it over Youtube as a single audio file with no bookmarks, or by downloading the album from the artist’s Geocities website. All that is asked is that you donate $30 CAD if able.
At times, the release strategy seems almost antagonistic towards would-be listeners. In this streaming age of having Content delivered straight to your device with minimal user effort, it’s begging to be passed over in favor of something more convenient. Even importing the downloaded files to an iPhone, I found that none of them were tagged. After painstakingly tagging each file with the correct title, order, and etc,. I found the information wouldn’t stick. After fandangling with it further I was finally able to import the correctly tagged album to my phone. (I still can’t get the album artwork to show on my local Apple music library.)
Despite the difficulty of getting the album prepared for convenient listening, I found myself even more compelled to dive in. This was after doing a more passive listen through Youtube. I knew there was something special here, and I was determined to find out what it was. The decision to release the album in such a way was likely in protest of predatory streaming services; however I believe there was also the motivation to incentivize the listener to properly engage with the work. To not let it serve as just another piece of Content to be consumed. After all the work put into getting the damn thing on my phone, the least I can do is give it more attention.
And more attention is what I gave it. Much more than I ever could have anticipated. 32 songs laid out across over 2 hours is a lot of music. The precedent set by the many double albums that came before was worrying. Double albums have historically come across as acts of self importance. Nine times out of ten, the quality just isn’t there to justify the runtime.
Another way that “Diamond Jubilee” serves as an anomaly is how it turns this expectation on its head. It is remarkably consistent throughout yet every song has its own identity. Each song adds an important element to the overall tapestry of the experience. It’s something that even single albums can struggle with. Seeing it achieved on an album of this magnitude makes it all the more impressive.
“Diamond Jubilee” acts like the greatest hits album of a band that never existed. At least not on this plane of reality. Flegel, though no stranger to low fidelity recordings, chooses on this latest offering to adopt the sonic sensibilities of low budget pop recordings from the late 50s, to the 60s and beyond. While some may deem it as mere pastiche of the era, digging in shows a deeper reverence for the inspiration.
On the side Flegel runs Realistik Radio on the NTS internet radio platform. Realistik Radio is a broadcast audio project that features American pop from the 60s and 70s. The cuts are deep as is Flegel’s dedication to this era of pop songwriting. Flegel acts like a linguist studying a long forgotten language. With an almost arcane knowledge, the Cindy Lee project resynthesizes these elements to create something new. It’s from this knowledge that “Diamond Jubilee” saw its genesis.
“Diamond Jubilee” sees its start with the title track. A clean, psyched out noodly guitar creeps in from the silence and begins to layer over itself. From the netherworld comes the brass section that sounds eerily like muffled human voices, before Cindy Lee finally takes the stage. It acts as an effective opener without spoiling the surprises that lie ahead. And do the surprises lay in wait. “Diamond Jubilee” throws many curve balls throughout its duration. Early in the runtime, Olive Drab stunts a classic Disco beat complete with a groovy string section. What exactly are we in for here?
Other cuts like “Baby Blue” and “Demon Bitch” sound like Velvet Underground songs that were somehow lost to time and never released. It’s the best kind of imitation, creating exceptional new songs from a classic coat of paint. Both songs make use of Flegel’s traditional vocal register. Oftentimes throughout we hear Flegel duetting with themself, utilizing both vocal stylings in the same song together. A nod to the classic female/male duets of yesterday.
Another disc one stand out is “Always Dreaming”, a dazzling number with an early 70s glam rock riff backed by a cascading harp. This gives way to Flegel’s beautiful ghostly falsetto before a high lonesome guitar melody meekly peeks through.
Throughout the album, Flegel’s vocals beautifully emulate those of the classic girl groups that are clearly a prominent inspiration for the project.
On “I Have My Doubts”, Flegel evokes the atmosphere of a high school prom night slow dance some fifty to sixty years ago. The singer croons with a frail but full emotional display.
“There were times
That I knew for sure
I had the answer
Without a doubt”
Sometimes you really do know for sure but that feeling doesn’t always last. It doesn’t invalidate how you felt in those moments but sometimes things just fall apart. Flegel sings it like someone who’s lived it even when siphoned through the guise of the Cindy Lee alter ego.
The definitive crown jewel of disc one, “Kingdom Come” is a chipper riot that demands you move your body and your soul.
“The other day
I could’ve sworn I heard you call my name
All through the melodies of yesterday
Till kingdom come”
Effectively a lo-fi teeny bopper anthem, “Kingdom Come” illustrates the core themes of memory and the lineage of melody and sound to weave a feeling of a time long past. One that may have never existed at all. It’s a stunning marriage of Flegel’s outstanding songwriting ability and technical skill with their instrument. Play it to your grandparents if they lived through this era and see what they think.
To cap off disc one, the instrumental “Realistik Heaven” paints a picture of a heaven filtered through pop music. You can easily imagine the wispy folks in the sky among the clouds dancing in tandem with the sweeping strings and thumping drums. Were this the end of the record, most people would walk away happy but that was only half the experience.
With disc two, the listener is greeted by the wet smacks of a guitar slathered in reverb before introducing a tight bassline on “Stone Faces”. This song begins with an expertly crafted psychedelic guitar melody. The ensuing beat only thumps harder after a few measures. It’s impossible not to bob your head to this.
This half of the album is bound to the smokey guitar sounds of 70s funk and rock. A cut like “To Heal This Wounded Heart” would be a likely candidate to be sampled in a hip hop song. Think of something like “Redbone” by Childish Gambino. Another cut, “Lockstepp” is reminiscent of the psychedelic sounds made famous by the Doors. Though Robby Krieger never came up with a solo like this piece which features a tone so sticky it’s a wonder Flegel could differentiate the individual notes.
Disc two also evokes a sunshine pop sound on some cuts. This is best shown off on “Golden Microphone” which sounds like the 1970s pop jazz band, NRBQ, if they were fronted by a ghost. Some of the most impactful lyrics on the record reside here…
“Look in the mirror
A face you know too well
If this is heaven
I’m going to straight to hell
So I’ll turn again
To this golden microphone
Where my key lights are shining bright”
In the oppressing familiarity of one’s own identity, someone like Flegel can take solace in the Cindy Lee identity, leveraging the opportunity to become someone new. To forget about their problems while on stage, at least for a little while. “Golden Microphone” comes to an abrupt end with arguably the most attention demanding song on the whole record, “If You Hear Me Crying.”
It grabs the listener right from the start with a funk guitar riff that would feel right at home on a Funkadelic record. The strong verses are supplanted by ear splittingly loud guitar solos before drifting out into the void. It’s a classic underground music move to pair such catchy melodies with extremely abrasive tones. To write a song even half as good as this would cement one’s legacy in the annals of rock music forevermore.
A particular highlight of disc two is the “Darling of the Diskoteque.” Originally the title track of the album before being swapped out for “Diamond Jubilee”, the serene ditty is a highly evocative of “Sleepwalk” by Santo and Johnny but with a bit of an industrial edge in the percussion.
By this point in the album, it’s been around an hour and a half straight of music. Normally this is where the fatigue would hit, but this doesn’t happen here. Quite the opposite. It’s a rejuvenating listen that does sound vaguely similar throughout but each song is thought out enough to where the time can and does slip by so easily. It’s one of the most painless double albums ever made in this writer’s opinion. As we reach the album’s conclusion, “24/7 Heaven” lulls the listener with a sleepy haze of guitar feedback and strings. Just as you’re ready to let it wash over you completely, it jumps to shrieky keyboards then cuts out abruptly.
Everything snaps back to reality. After spending 2 hours in a dreamscape, one must reflect on the journey they’ve taken. The emotions and sounds that were so carefully fed to them over the experience.
“Diamond Jubilee” unapologetically stands as an artistic triumph from Cindy Lee. Easily the most effective and far reaching work of their catalog. Arguably it even eclipses Flegel’s previous work with Women. After all this the only option remaining is to hit play and do it all over again.
4.7/5
Listen on Youtube or download the WAV files on the artist website.
