[Deepwaters]

OK, I'll have a shot at it. This is, as AC said, not an easy article to translate, though. I may have to leave some blanks, or make some wild guesses in places. But here goes.

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IT'S NOT HER FAULT.

TOP-OF-THE-SCALE PROMOTION PLAN AND NEW ALBUM BUILT UP BY DANIEL DARC, BERTRAND BOUGALAT AND JEAN FAUQUE: THE EX-KINKY-LOLITA ALIZEE WANTS RESPONSIBLE ADULT INDIE POP. WHY NOT A TURN TOWARDS MATURITY, BUT NEVERTHELESS IT'S THE DOUBLE PINK VINYL AND BASQUE (?) ON WHICH ONE VOTES BY PLEBISCITE. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN MAINTAINING A DECEPTION.

One hears from here the sarcastic remarks of the embittered. One can even smell from afar the odor of rotten tomatoes that they will quickly hurl upon our proud writing when their dismayed eyes see the name of Alizée together with that synopsis. "Cynical and mercantile!" they'll exclaim. "A pose typical of a good old woman trying to give mainstream kitsherie a cooler air! When with a file on the comparative merits of Deerhoof and Eddy Mitchell?" the fine psychologists will retort. And everyone -- or almost -- will in the end be right. Because an artist who sold 6 million albums about her "Gourmandises," while being elected by the NME plebiscite (which named the sulfurous "Moi Lolita" single of the week in 2002) and Jarvis Cocker (who at the time saw in this same piece the quintessence of French pop, perverse and intoxicating, along the lines of Gainsbourg in the Sixties) that is nothing and -- above all -- that interests us.

We are now in 2007 and the case of Alizée impassions us to the highest degree. Her benevolent record label (euphemism) provided an enormous promotion for the young woman, but only heavy brainyspeak and hype. The arrogant press: "In the promotion plan, we have Libération, So Foot, you! On the other hand, magazine people [People magazine?] were refused. Question of image!" Ah, yes. The image of Alizée has changed noticeably, even if it would be impetuous to say that "Psychédélices," the new work of the young woman, presents "a turn to maturity."

The divorce from her marriage with Mylène Farmer-Laurent Boutonnat and the announcement of, at the very least, unexpected collaborators (the tandem Daniel Darc/Frédéric Lo, Bertrant Burgalat, the lyricist for Bashung Jean Fauque) alongside her, hmm, questionable boyfriend Jérémy Chatelaine for composing this third album "Psychédélices" however managed to disconcert us. What can hide well behind the famous "Moi Lolita," a phenomenon as much musical (its irresistible melody took the form of a heavenly gift for Julien Doré) as societal, so much so that it confirmed the disturbing fashions of impressionable Lolitas -- the real ones, the 12-year-old girls with a hyper-sexual appearance -- in the course of [récré] of France and of Navarre?

[more in a bit]