À Cœur Fendre
 

Please discuss:
1)What this song means to you.
2)What do you feel about this song.
3)What you like/don't like, and why.
4)How good it is from a musical standpoint.
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Please refrain from using one-line comments (ex. "I Agree" "It's Awesome")
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1)This song means a great deal to me. It seems in the lyrics that a person is giving all they have to satisfy another or show that they do so much for that person;and then those people split. It seems like the splitting of a couple. It is very dark and just seems like a song about Divorce:(Definitely not saying Alizee is thinking of divorce, please dont think that haha.

2)I feel this song is great but It is again another filler song. The lyrics are amazing, but maybe it's just because I don't know the whole story of Edie Sedgwick, actually that is probably the huge and only reason I think it is a filler. But overall I like this song because all albums have to have a dark song.

3)I love the music to the song, but hate how the lyrics are dark. The dark lyrics sort of take away the "bang" from the amazing music.

4)This song is great from a musical standpoint. I love the little violin staccato notes throughout the song. This song seems a bit Trancey and that is quite awesome. The buzzing is being slurred while the percussion and violin are all in rhythm and staccatoed. I guess this is the contrast of the two people I see splitting, Slur and Staccato. This is a musical showing of how they are different and splitting up.

I dunno about the rest of you but to me this is a good mood song. The music is full of energy and it sorta bounces along. :rolleyes: I've had a look at the lyrics though, and they're pretty dark and depressing:
The sky is dark
The life is bleak
It's freezing, enough to split stone
I'm cold
The dark lyrics don't go too well with the upbeat feeling of the music in my opinion anyway. I'd like to hear other peoples' thoughts on this matter. The pounding beat at the beginning is a bit much, I'd have preferred to have it gradually get up to speed instead of just suddenly beginning out of nowhere (if that makes sense... I have no idea how to put this in musical terms :confused:). Overall, I really like it and it's one of my faves from the album, but I don't think it's quite on the same level as Eden, Eden and Mes Fantômes.

This is also on my fave five by Alizée. It is so fresh and so upbeat, and so new. It puts me into a good mood each time I have a listen to it.

I kind of agree with babyblue about how it seems more of a happy and "up" song for the most part. There are a few parts where the mood meets the darkness of the lyrics when things change and get a little slower like from 0:38-ish to 1:05-ish though.

First listening to the song, or just listening and not thinking of the lyrics at all, I get from the song a more happy and upbeat kind of song or story. But after a look at the lyrics, I look at the song a little closer.

I think they chose a more uppity beat to this song to keep that racing feeling or sense of a rush.

Here I'll show you. The lyric translations I got with the help of google translater. Not sure how accurate these are but its close enough, I think, to show you why they chose the music they chose for different parts of the song. Listening to the part of the song along with the lyrics and my analysis/interpretation of the song may help you better see what I'm talking about.

At the beggining we hear that happy and upbeat mood and music that is carried out with these lyrics.
(beginning to 0:35)
J’ai forcé la porte des enfers......................I forced the door of hell
J’ai rompu le sceau défendu.......................I broke the seal defended
Pour toi............................................... ..For you

Détourné le cours d’un volcan....................Turned the course of a volcano
Pour réchauffer tes bras tremblants............To warm up your arms trembling
Pour toi............................................... ..For you

Then things change a little bit when these lyrics are being sung. The music turns a little "darker".
(0:38 - 1:05)
Le ciel est noir.................The sky is black
Ma vie est sombre............My life is dark
Il gèle à pierre fendre........It is freezing cold
J’ai froid..........................I'm(It's?) Cold

Then again with the "happy", "upbeat", or "racing" mood of the song for these lyrics.
(1:06 - 1:29)
J’ai avancé l’heure de l’aurore.............I advanced the hour of dawn
J’ai brusqué le retour des fleurs...........I hurried back flowers
Pour toi..........................................For you

J’ai fait les vitres, changé l’ampoule.....I made the windows, changed the bulb
Etouffé les cris de la foule.................Smothered the cries of the crowd
Pour toi.........................................For you

Then back to the more down part.
(1:30 - 1:57)
Le ciel s’effondre.................The sky is falling
Débris, décombres...............Debris , rubble
Il gèle à coeur fendre..........It freezes at heart split
J’ai froid............................I'm Cold

Then things change more to what I would call a "hopeful mood" to the song for these lyrics.
(2:10 - 2:35)
Il n’y a plus un bruit dans le jardin d’hiver...............There is more noise in the winter garden
Nous nous abritons sous les ramures contraires.......We took shelter under the branches contrary

Then back to the darkness. And the ending.
(2:36 - end)
Sans toi, le monde..........Without you the world
Vacille, succombe...........Flickers, dies
Il gèle à coeur fendre......It freezes at heart split
J’ai froid.......................I'm cold

Sans toi.......................Without you


So as you may see, the blue lyrics take place in the more "happy" tones of the song and the dark red lyrics take place in the "darker" parts of the song.

In the first two blue parts we can see why they may have chose this "up" beat for the song. It gives that sense of rush or go, go, go. In those sections, that is supported with lyrics such as "I forced the door of hell", "Turned the course of a volcano", "I advanced the hour of dawn", "I hurried back flowers", and "I made the windows, changed the bulb". All these things would be done in a hurrying manner. But it all can be interpreted or taken differently.

The red parts we hear the music change to better match the lyrics such as "the sky is black" and "the sky is falling".


But this is just how I see the song and this is what I have found through my analysis of it. It can all be taken differently depending on who you are and how you understand or interpret it I guess.

I don't know French so when I listen to this song I still sometimes will think of it as more of a happy song rather than what the lyrics suggest :p.

I definitely, just like everyone else, get that feeling or thought too. It seems like it could have been the "J'ai Pas Vingt Ans" of the album, but then one looks at the lyrics and one's mind changes haha.


I will always see this song as happy no matter how much I try to remind myself it is the darkest song on the album.


Also thanks for showing us your analysis of the song AI! It was great and it really showed me more meaning to the song.

Thanks for the insight AI! I've never really looked at the lyrics for this song that closely before, and I can see where you're coming from. The 'happiest' sounding bits of it are definitely the verses, and those have the lighter lyrics, and then when the music changes to slower and darker for the chorus, the lyrics change similarly. If that's the case, then kudos to Alizée and her team for having such a close relationship between the lyrics and the feeling of the music.

Same with me. I'll always think of Factory Girl as the dark song of UEDS... and I think that the music of Factory Girl reflects a dark subject matter far more effectively than that of ACF.

Yes, and I think they didn't want to put any more darkness into this album haha. They tried to keep it somewhat happy. I mean man, even the cover is dark! I think I need to make a thread for an analysis of the cover of the album now haha.

I just love this song, even that the lyrics suggests being a dark and sad song.
I've spent a lot of time while translating it, so I can say that lyrics don't have any mysteries for me.
There is a hope in song, but it immediately runs into the real world, gray reality of day-to-day world.
Main subject in song misses someone; she makes everything for welcome him, but he doesn't come and she's sad. It's the most visible interpretation.

Wow I never saw that. Thanks for the enlightenment! I look at this song so much differently now....

Even though some of the songs lyrics may have a certain dark tone, overall the song is upbeat, fresh, new, positive, great beat, like to listen to it really loud, good to dance to, should be being played in clubs everywhere, would love to hear any remixes of it when they come out.

Well, it's just one of possible interpretations, I see it clearly.
Phrases like: I advanced, I hurried, I did [...] for you; and without you world dies, flickers show this quite good, I believe. Of course, it's a literal interpretation, the first "layer" of the song.

Oh I can see it now. Thanks

+ 1

A coeur fendre was one of my favourites from the beginning - even when we just had the extract from amazon - because of its happy, fresh and cheeky atmosphere... well later I got a bit deeper into the lyrics and was a prerry surprised that the song is so "dark" and also a bit depressing...but to be honest I never really cared to much about the lyrics at the beginning. If I like a song or not depends on the feeling I have when I listen to it...

It was the one i wanted to hear most with the Amazonmp3 extracts....but when i heard the whole thing I was happy but wish it was more awesome in the sense that it was upbeat the whole time like it is in the chorus. Well I guess that's just wishing for JPVA #2 haha.

But yes thats one of the reasons that most of us are here, we didn't mind the french at first because "I like a song or not depends on the feeling I have when I listen to it..." That's why foreign music can still attract people.

One of my first favorites song, I like it!

OHMYGODYES!! J'ai pas trente ans haha. :p

I can see what you mean, but this album is just too dark to have anything like a "J'ai Pas Vingt Ans" to it. It would be too out of place. That would be like having a Limelight for Pyschedelices. Very out of character.

Though.. if she did make a J'ai Pas Trente Ans, I'd kill for it. Not that it matters, but seeing as how I am indeed 20 now.. :p

I consider this the second best song on UEDS, after Les Collines. It's a bit more fast-paced and the voice post-processing is done just right, without making it sound too synthetic. I used to listen to it for a while, but now I'm not listening to anything from UEDS. The older stuff (first 2 albums) is still what I like the most.

I think that although we'd all love another upbeat JPVAish song, she's done more than her fill of upbeat, poppy songs. I don't think she could make any improvement on songs like ML JPVA and Fifty - Sixty, which are all imo examples of the perfect pop song. It's much better that she left the territory of pop that she was so comfortable in to do something completely different. I really admire her for doing that, even there are gonna be a certain amount of people who hate the change.

Guilty as charged. I actually think Psychédélices was well balanced and had the potential to appeal to pretty much everyone, but UEdS it's just way too much in one direction, and quite frankly I just don't like it.

Yeah I can understand that. I nearly went that way myself too. I think she realised how much of a massive risk the change to electropop would be, and that a load of fans wouldn't like it. But again, I admire her for doing what she wanted to do and not being influenced by what the fans wanted, but as far as her career's concerned, the change really hasn't paid off. :(