Under the name Cindy Lee, Canadian musician Patrick Flegel creates haunting avant-garde pop music rooted in themes of heartbreak, alienation, and gender identity. The former frontperson for Calgary art rockers Women, Flegel began performing in drag as Cindy Lee in the early 2010s and went on to release a series of sonically adventurous solo albums under this banner that carried into the next decade. The project had an unexpected breakthrough with the 2024 double album Diamond Jubilee, which became one of indie's most critically acclaimed records of the year despite a release strategy that eschewed streaming platforms. Along with their brother Matt Flegel, Patrick enjoyed popularity and critical success as a member of the noise rock outfit Women. During their five-year run, the group toured heavily and released a pair of unique and well-received albums before disbanding in 2012 following the death of guitarist Chris Reimer. By that point, Flegel had already begun to dress in drag and soon fused the Cindy Lee persona with a new strain of solo music they dubbed "confrontation pop." An eerie blend of tragic '50s pop, lo-fi ambience, and experimental textures, their first album, Act of Tenderness, was self-released in 2015 and featured Lee's daring falsetto vocals amid washes of distortion and soundscapes that alternated between lush and harsh. A cassette-only release, Malenkost, also appeared that year, adding further depth to Lee's strange, cathartic missives. Over the next several years, both Malenkost and Act of Tenderness received wider releases on the Superior Viaduct label, which also issued the 2018 anthology Model Express. Meanwhile, they continued to perform around Toronto and work on new material. Lee relocated to Durham, North Carolina, around the time they issued their next album, What's Tonight to Eternity, in early 2020, followed quickly by the limited-edition Cat 'O Nine Tails album. (The latter set was reissued on cassette by Isolated Now Waves in 2023.) Recorded on digital eight-track over the next several years, mostly alone but with contributions from Steven Lind, the sprawling Diamond Jubilee was partly intended as a response to the darker What's Tonight to Eternity. Ending up with 32 tracks and an over-two-hour playing time, it did indeed forgo the gloomier, harsher aspects of the project's previous releases while retaining a time-damaged, disintegrating sound and clear influences like '50s pop and classic girl groups. Diamond Jubilee became an anomaly in 2024 release practices when its popularity took off thanks to receiving Pitchfork's highest rating in four years, word of mouth, and ensuing mainstream music-press coverage, despite having been issued in March as a download available exclusively at the project's spartan GeoCities website. On tour at the time, Cindy Lee had to upsize venues, and following an appearance on the short list for the Polaris Music Prize, Flegel finally did add the album to select sites like Bandcamp and (non-subscription) YouTube in October 2024. That month, Cindy Lee teamed up with Panda Bear for the single "Defense." ~ Timothy Monger & Marcy Donelson