And just when it seemed to us that it was Rock and Roll a matter of memory and not of the present, one appeared panel which used the nostalgic narrative in an exceptional way to tell us something powerful about today's times - Diamond Jubilee (Realistic), signed with the name Cindy Lee. It's a project by Canadian alternative rock musician Patrick Flegel (b. 1985, Calgary), former guitarist of Women, which attracted a lot of attention from world critics during 2024, ending up on many lists of the best releases, including ours (it was independently released digitally in March, became available on Bandcamp in October, and will appear physically in February 2025, as CD and vinyl).
The music here functions as a memory of rock and roll, and the basic emotion of this triple album, which lasts more than two hours, is radical, all-pervading, set nostalgia. The record flows in a haze of memories of something that didn't happen, like sepia a photograph, the sfumato of which spills out as we look at it. The author plays with all possible sub-genres of rock and related forms of the 60s and 70s, speaking from the subconscious of rock music, in which all its elements are still combined and tumbled, all the while threatening to assemble into something brilliant. And really, Diamond Jubilee it flows like a series of dreams about what she was all about. This is certainly how the current generation perceives it - as a dream. The dream of freedom to truly be what one wants to be, unlike today's consumable digital fantasies where we can painlessly invent ourselves as much as we want, because it will never become reality. Former dreams were more real than today's reality.
And that's the message that makes Diamond Jubilee with an ultra-modern rock and roll piece: Cindy Lee takes us back to a time when we ourselves were real and had honest feelings. These songs mourn and lament our current unreality, lighting our way to a true emotional life. Nostalgia here is an expression of pain for a lost reality.
32 SONGS
Epic momentum Diamond Jubilee it becomes justified only when you listen to all 32 pieces of which it is composed. They finally unite as a kaleidoscopic image, giving us the experience of wandering and searching for ourselves. That misery of the incurable loneliness of being in this torn world is what the bittersweet, melancholic songs of this album describe.
The song titles are instructive enough: All I Want Is You, If You Hear Me Crying, To Heal This Wounded Heart, Crime of Passion, Darling of the Discoteque, Always Dreaming, Dracula, The Phantom Machinist, all the fantasies about a meaningful love life, which exists only as a promise and never happens to us. The evocation of longing is brought to perfection on this record.
Album Diamond Jubilee it is most successful as a manifesto of lost intimacy. He is spearheading a new wave of rock albums made for consumption on mobile phones. All the tracks are illuminated from the inside with intense, sincere, warm emotions, but they do not have a completely solid structure, but act as suggestions of a certain mood. We walk through the remnants of soul, glam-rock, folk-rock, garage sound, chanson, white funk, psychedelic pop, the sound of girl bands of the sixties and a few others - at first glance, it seems like surfing through the parallel history of rock and roll, but at no point is it retro because each genre is actually a code for our different emotional state. In the end, we are still searching for ourselves…
THREE MYSTERIES
The plaque is marked by three mysteries that actively engage us to participate in it. First of all, "diamond jubilee" is an expression used to mark 60 years of something. There's the first puzzle related to this album: something important happened in 1974, which is why it's called that - maybe the title just suggests the era that Cindy Lee brings to life, and maybe it refers to something very specific. We'll probably never know. That's why we have to use our imagination and refine the story of this record the way we want it - which is exactly what the author wants. Because all the tracks on the album are just like that: seemingly unfinished, sketchy, abruptly cut off, only suggesting an atmosphere where something significant is happening. This is how Cindy Lee creates a new rock and roll expression, which does not tolerate any rounded form and deliberately leaves it loose ends, for feelings to flow freely, without restrictions.
Another mystery concerns how it was made: an edition born of an alternative cultural practice, in room conditions, as do it yourself product – Patrick played almost all the instruments himself, and his only collaborator was musician and producer Steven Lind. We can only imagine how many months they had to spend in Realistik's home studio to create more than two hours of music... In the end, the album was released independently and initially only digitally - you had to search for it on the Internet. Everything about this board is designed to evoke a sense of private discovery and personal address.
The third mystery is related to identity: Patrick Flegel + guest musicians are hiding under the name Cindy Lee. So far, he has published a total of seven projects since 2012, among which he was the most notable What's Tonight to Eternity?? (2020). But who exactly is Cindy Lee? Only occasionally giving interviews per underground sites, the author builds an elusive, fluid character around this name, and it is Diamond Jubilee a hymn to that fluidity, wrapped in rock music.
When performing as Cindy Lee, Patrick Flegel appears everywhere disguised as a woman. The real truth about rock and roll is that it allowed us to be who we dream of being in public. Maybe this is the ultimate love record for this age, where the main character has a romantic affair with himself, openly loving his feminine side?
Brave in every way.
