Sébastien Tellier – Kiss the Beast
Six years is a long time in electronic music. When Sébastien Tellier last graced us with a full-length album, the domestic meditation “Domesticated” from 2020, the world looked very different. Now, in 2026, the ever sunglasses-clad Parisian dandy returns with “Kiss the Beast”, a twelve-track expedition through disco floors, synth ballads and orchestral detours that proves both his enduring cool and his occasional tendency to overthink the dancefloor. The album arrives with a pedigree dripping from every track.
Production heavyweights Oscar Holter (The Weeknd, Katy Perry) and French Touch compatriot SebastiAn help shape a sound that nods to Tellier’s formative role in the French electronic revolution while chasing contemporary pop sheen. Owen Pallett’s string arrangements add cinematic grandeur, while guest appearances from Nile Rodgers and Kid Cudi promise mainstream crossover appeal. With the opening track, the title track “Kiss the Beast”, Tellier immediately establishes his aesthetic: lush, heavily tuned vocals floating over dreamy electronic textures.
It is pleasant enough, although the repetitive lyrics wear thin over three and a half minutes. The follow-up “Naïf de Coeur” stretches things even further, almost five minutes of whispered crooning that, despite beautiful synth work, feels like watching mist slowly roll across a mirror. Then comes “Refresh”, and suddenly everything clicks. With its addictive eighties beat and Daft Punk-style vocoder, this is Tellier at his most irresistible. The violin flourishes are perfection itself, and lyrics urging listeners to ‘restart and refresh the game’ capture that video game nostalgia with genuine charm. If you want a point of reference, think Air’s “Moon Safari” crossed with the neon maximalism of Justice.
But just as quickly, the album stumbles. “Mouton” is genuinely bizarre, dramatic piano interrupted by bleating sheep, less evocative of Leonard Cohen than of a confused farmyard symphony. It is the kind of curveball that will be read either as a bold artistic statement or as a smug misstep, depending on your tolerance for the surreal.
Thankfully, “Thrill of the Night” redeems the album immediately. This collaboration with hyperpop princess Slayyyter and disco legend Nile Rodgers is pure Studio 54 magic transplanted to 2026. Rodgers’ guitar sparkles with his trademark joy, while Slayyyter’s chromatic melodies in the chorus, ‘Excitation tickle my imagination’, provide the sugar-sweet pop hook the album badly needs. It is easily the album’s highlight, a track destined to soundtrack European summer festivals and intimate club nights.
The second half of the album is more inconsistent. “Copycat” succeeds where earlier ballads failed, with Tellier’s whispered vocals finally finding the right setting amid sumptuous strings and layered synths. “Animale” aims for cinematic drama with its brass-backed piano progression, but feels oddly misplaced within the synth-heavy environment. Kid Cudi’s appearance on “Amnesia” offers a welcome injection of energy, although the track itself never quite delivers on the excitement his verse promises. “Loup” closes with unexpected flamenco guitar flourishes that ultimately build towards a triumphant, Bonnie Tyler-esque finale; it is strange, wonderful, and hints at the more adventurous album lurking beneath the surface polish.
Final track “Un Dimanche en Famille” offers a gentle descent, although by this point it is hard not to feel that “Kiss the Beast” works better as a playlist than as a coherent statement. Therein lies the fundamental issue: Tellier has made an album of moments rather than a singular vision. The production is consistently gorgeous, the craftsmanship impeccable, but the whispered delivery that once defined his mystique now sometimes drains the joy from otherwise brilliant arrangements. When he fully commits to the dancefloor, as on “Thrill of the Night” and “Refresh”, the results are spectacular. When he drifts into introspection, the album loses momentum.
Still, there is undeniable craft on display. Tellier’s role as French Touch godfather remains secure, and his willingness to blur the boundaries between intimate bedroom pop and club-ready disco shows ambition. The collaborations genuinely enhance rather than overwhelm, and the album’s best tracks stand proudly alongside anything in his catalogue. “Kiss the Beast” is not the triumphant statement of purpose that a six-year wait might suggest, but it is a fascinating, often beautiful document of an artist still wrestling with his impulses towards both accessibility and experimentalism. Put the standouts on your playlist and admire Tellier’s enduring cool, just do not expect the full album to sustain that same wild energy.
(6/10) (Because Music)
