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05-12-2010, 12:50 AM
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2010-05-07 Trax #135 magazine
Quote:
by Louis-Henri de la Rochefoucauld Point Éphémère, 24th of last March: we attened a mini-concert for the launch of Alizée's excellent new album, Une Enfant du Siècle. Lyrics, singing, melodies, sound, top electro-pop, the album sounds like a modern version of the soundtrack for "Nuits de la pleine Lune" (Nights of the full moon) from Elli & Jacno. Accompanied on stage (or on the scene) by Tahiti Boy and two members of Château Marmont, the miss sings four songs from it. Warm beer in hand, we comment that it's strange to cross paths in this trendy bar with this subscriber to popular hit-parade. But, no matter: counter to these complacent underground wimps we are used to, it's especially nice to see a singer who's really passionate and talented. Still, a doubt itches at us that night: coherent concept album without a big FM hit, does this Enfant du Siècle risk ending up an orphan, the fans of Alizée not finding it frank and brave enough, the pop and electro public not having the curiosity to lend a welcoming ear? The first response the week of release: the album charts at 24th in sales. It descends to 69th place after two weeks. Ouch, that's not working out too well. And in our entourage, we hear sniggering: "This album, it's from Vladimir Cosma, ah, ah, ah." "Who does she think she is?" To put a point on this disappointing launch, we met the Alizée. Serene and very nice, she tries, this said, to fool us, to explain to us that she has had nothing but enthousiastic responses from her fans, that they have evolved at the same time as her, that they all tell her it's her best album bla bla bla. For more frankness, we call Rob. Beyond having composed three titles, he also produced the disk, coordinating the work of the other producers (Chateau Marmont and Tahiti Boy, but also David Rubato, Tacteel and Para One). He quickly clarifies the situation: "There is a gamble with this album. Alizée is going to be rejected by all the public for whom she supposedly made crap, and the people who adored the "crap" that she has made are going to say: "But what is this, who does she think she is, she's showing off like she's all trendy!" This is what threatens her a bit: to receive arrows from both sides. Anyway, I think that the people who really listen to the album will think it's good. But I'm not sure that people really do listen." "Soul, Coolness, Creativity" Rob is right: music is often reduced to the exhausting role of the meat of conversation for social ping pong, an exercise regarding, above all, being more cultivated than one's neighbor. An "erudition" behind which is often well hidden serious simpletons: it is, for example, chic to brag about Logic System (specialist reference), markedly less chic to slit one's veins in praising Vladimir Cosma. Except that they are musically very close, except for one little detail: Cosma is by far the more talented of the two. In this snob game, Alizée is not the winner. It is not socially gratifying to defend her. Even though there is infinitely more soul, coolness and creativity in her album than in those of Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, Charlotte Gainsbourg or Gorillaz, all these frozen crap songs pecked at by the bourgeois-bohème, her image of variété for the firemen's ball is the stronger one. And the public does not deign to listen to her, or maybe at a secondary degree. Show-biz? Not her thing Alizée is a victim of her original success. Because she was highly successful after her first single (Moi... Lolita, sold 2.5 million units in 2000), she had to remain her whole life confined to the most pedestrian branch of the mainstream. Even if she participates each year at Les Enfoirés, she doesn't necessary have the desire to hobnob with the Obispos or Bénabars: "Show-biz has never been my thing. When I was invited to my first television shows, I just went there to sing, I stayed in my dressing room, I didn't go have little chats with people I didn't know just because it was the thing to do." Alizée has made proof of her open mind since 2007. Liberated from the guardianship of Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat, she surrounded herself for her third album Psychédélices with brilliant chaps like Bertrand Burgalat, Daniel Darc, and Jean Fauque, the lyricist for Bashung. And there was already some frankly not bad peices like Fifty-Sixty. Electro-variety This year, make way for a real take-off with Une Enfant Du Siècle. Like her idole Madonna, Alizée takes hold of the artistic direction of the album, choosing from top flight producers – "Except that Madonna is contented to take people who are in fashion to make her albums, while I'm rather: surround myself with people who want to write for me" she corrects. Starting off with some common references (Jeanette, Giorgio Moroder, the album Pull Marine from Adjani written by Gainsbourg), Alizée sets her conditions: "The producers were free. The only thing that I demanded was "popular" melodies. I couldn't see myself singing things too specialised (too niche?), I would not have been able to take that on. Within electro, they give priority to the production, the sound, and less the melody. For me, it's the opposite: in variété, the melody is very important." Voluptuously intermixing the best of eletronica and variété, the result bewitches. "A shitty mentality" In England, where pop and variété are always confused, everyone would be on their knees before this album. The proof? The credibility and the success of Lily Allen, at the same time hype and mainstream, Chanel muse and popular. Alizée: "Lily Allen? Certainly, she has the perfect status. She's a model (for a career?)." But get over it, we're in France, "country with a shitty mentality" as Chateau Marmont puts it, "where everyone judges in permanance, takes their opinion from the majority, or alternately knocks down to distance onself and stroke one's petty ego." In the present situation, the majority have not yet caught on to Une Enfant du Siècle and certain little smart-asses think they are clever to mock it. Not all is finished, a tour is expected at the end of the year. We hope that between now and then the wind will have turned, bringing with it the general public and the weather-cocks (people who change opinion easily... his mind goes where the wind goes). ---------------- translation by Roman
__________________
 Merci Fanny 
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