By: Andrew Meeker

Formed in 2012, L’Impératrice (“The Empress” in English) is a six-person French
nu-disco group that released their third studio album, Pulsar, on June 7, 2024. Nu-disco is a
genre that initially gained popularity in the late 90s when producers combined sampling
techniques characteristic of house music with electronics. The genre enjoyed a brief comeback in
the 2010s with French electronic duo Daft Punk’s smash-hit “Get Lucky” in 2013, but the genre
has since then fallen out of vogue. In the wake of Daft Punk, L’Impératrice continues to
incorporate trendy production methods into a nostalgic nu-disco sound accompanied with
masterful vocals in French, English, Spanish, and Italian.


I discovered Pulsar after listening to “Any Way” featuring Maggie Rogers, a laid-back
song about yearning for a past lover accompanied by a futuristic music video that complements
the song’s glittery, other-worldly production. As a longtime fan of Rogers, I was impressed by
how L’Imperatrice shed her in a new light by surrounding her robust voice with chill-inducing
synth chord progressions and soaring violin descants. Rogers’s standout track communicates
only one of the many emotions that the album explores; for example, the more upbeat “Danza
Marilù” (Dance, Marilou in English) featuring Neapolitan jazz singer Fabiana Martone showers
a woman on the dance floor in “Dancing Queen”-esque praise with lyrics like “Look at them
now, all spinning / They’re following your movements, your body” (translated from French).


Another highlight on the album is its penultimate track, “Sweet & Sublime” featuring
Brooklyn-based rapper Erick the Architect. Lead L’Impératrice singer Flore Benguigui and Erick
mesh together flawlessly in this song about riding with your gang and taking risks with them in
the name of friendship. Pulsar sails into a smooth finale on its title track, which beautifully
constructs a narrative around heartbreak and healing by using an extended metaphor about dead
stars that continue to shine millions of miles away, even though their sources no longer exist. “Pulsar” is a home-run track accompanied by flute, violin, and electric guitar. Surprisingly, the
song drops into a groovy hip-hop breakdown with chopped vocals from Benguigui during its last
minute, a sonic departure from the rest of the album that ends it on an intriguing note. Compared
to Pulsar’s first track “Cosmologie”, a textbook nu-disco instrumental that underwhelmed me, its
finale left me so satisfied that it inspired me to revisit other gems earlier on in the album.

Much of what I enjoyed about Pulsar was Benguigui’s vocal performance; her soft
timbre never overpowered the production, and since her cadence reminded me of successful
alternative singers like Clairo, Grimes, and Phoebe Bridgers, she gave the album a fresh sound.
Unfortunately, on September 26th, L’Imperatrice announced on Instagram that Benguigui had
left the band “to move on to new ventures,” but they quickly introduced her replacement, Louve,
to their followers on October 1st. Hopefully, Louve can complement the nu-disco group’s
signature sound on their future projects as Benguigui did on Pulsar.
Rating: 3.5/5