2010-05-07 Trax #135 magazine

[Roman]

Originally Posted by Chuck

Thanks Gazillions Again, Merci Alizée!
The next day, Nidalizee posted some HQ jpg's of that article. The second one's actually legible, and it's a pretty good read. We should translate this!
(Warning - you must be 18 to look at the cover of the magazine, the first link here )

Page 1: http://www.nidalizee.com/presse/TRAX-135/TRAX-135-1.jpg
Page 2: http://www.nidalizee.com/presse/TRAX-135/TRAX-135-2.jpg
Page 3: http://www.nidalizee.com/presse/TRAX-135/TRAX-135-3.jpg

In gracefully allying French variety and electro, the super album of the ex-Lolita would have been able to win over two stages at the same time: general public and trendy. At the moment, it's rather incomprehension that reigns in the two camps.
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).
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translation by Roman

[Människöpesten]

i still think there's an audience out there that appreciates the style of music she's going for... it's all about finding it.

[Roman]

Originally Posted by Människöpesten

i still think there's an audience out there that appreciates the style of music she's going for... it's all about finding it.

I for one would find it more interesting if she was more interested in show-biz in so far as one is talking about performance. Interesting music mixed with interesting dance or ... something. That is what people want, an experience. Every time I go look at videos of the young Alizée at school or other girls there, I think that I wish Alizée had retained or regained some sense of that. But instead, one has the feeling that she's kind of broken from her element. It's no doubt hard to organize time and even more so training for events, but while she could just be a singer, she makes one dream a beautiful dream when one thinks of great music and her singing along with the beauty of dance. I know she can't probably do much of both at the same time, but for a music video, for instance... I think if she could do something really classy with dance and song, it would be within the realm of how we like to imagine her and bring her a lot of respect and adoration back.

But, it's one thing to say it and another to do it. That requires a certain talent, but also a certain amount of training. It's no doubt a lot easier to record for a video than do live, but people want Alizée to create a dream we can fall into and that's what creates the kind of fans that she initially attracted. It seems like it's just too late and has been for a long time, but then if I think of it actually happening, then it feels like it's not too late. I'm afraid that to gain traction she will have to do something and I don't see anything happening. I've been saying that since 2008. Maybe she's just not that person anymore and she has a whole different way of relating to the world than what we imagine as Alizée, but... someone is going to have to do something to get that music more attention and if it does, Alizée will have to be prepared to respond I think. Now, could such response just be doing concerts? Well, maybe and I suppose that would be fine, but to plan something out for months ahead... people could gain a lot of interest from some event and then lose it in the mean time. This is what happened in 2008 it seems like. When will something happen and when will she be ready to step back into show-biz? Maybe she is ready and is just waiting for someone to ask. For whom is it enough in 2010 to put out an album of 10 songs and let people know it's there? I guess if it works, it works, but if it doesn't everyone will say there is something missing.

[User22]

(Warning - you must be 18 to look at the cover of the magazine, the first link here )

I shouldn't have pushed that link on these school computers

But yah that's a pretty good article. I enjoyed it a lot and am loving this whole electro thing.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Hmm... Interesting... Must the French press be so negative? Also, if she is so disliked and forgotten as we are led to believe, by the French press, and even members of this site, why is she still being covered, written about, and interviewed? I think it is just the press's way of bringing attention to her.

[User22]

Originally Posted by VVVACCPLPNLY

Hmm... Interesting... Must the French press be so negative? Also, if she is so disliked and forgotten as we are led to believe, by the French press, and even members of this site, why is she still being covered, written about, and interviewed? I think it is just the press's way of bringing attention to her.

She is just more popular to the more musical crowd, not the poppy mainstream crowd. So now I really don't know how popular she is. But she has sold CDs over there and had a good turnout for the signing...

[Chuck]

BEAUTIFUL JOB, ROMAN! (AS USUAL )

Roman, thanks so much for bringing this article to "the rest of us" by translating so expertly. I think Trax and the author give a good (realistic) objective view of Alizée, her career so far, U.E.D.S., and how they all are faring in the music scene of France today. Insights galore! Very enlightening. I think if we had a "required reading" list here at the forum, this article would have to be on it!

Then Roman said:

I for one would find it more interesting if she was more interested in show-biz in so far as one is talking about performance. Interesting music mixed with interesting dance or ... something. That is what people want, an experience. ...

True, true...

...It's no doubt hard to organize time and even more so training for events, but while she could just be a singer, she makes one dream a beautiful dream when one thinks of great music and her singing along with the beauty of dance. I know she can't probably do much of both at the same time, but for a music video, for instance... I think if she could do something really classy with dance and song, it would be within the realm of how we like to imagine her and bring her a lot of respect and adoration back.

But, it's one thing to say it and another to do it. That requires a certain talent, but also a certain amount of training. It's no doubt a lot easier to record for a video than do live, but people want Alizée to create a dream we can fall into and that's what creates the kind of fans that she initially attracted. ...

I'd argue that Lili is one person who HAS the talent, and has the training and discipline required... but she's more concerned with raising a child, at the moment.

... For whom is it enough in 2010 to put out an album of 10 songs and let people know it's there? I guess if it works, it works, but if it doesn't everyone will say there is something missing.

Yes, if it works, great! But if not, hey, at least she's still going, and she's proven to a lot of people that she's NOT just planning to fade away and become a schoolteacher. Rather, she's reaffirmed herself as a professional musician and artist. (Nobody called her an "artist" in the olden days.) I think at this point in her career, she's gotten to a very good point, lackluster sales figures be damned! She's still showing a lot of strength, vitality, viability, and still able to keep us all intrigued and wanting to hear more. In other words, she's proven to all of France that she's still got "it", but now with a more matured sensibility. And whether they're buying the records or not is secondary - the most important thing she's achieved now is a renewed credibility.

Raising a toddler isn't easy, it takes all of your time, patience, energy, emotions, and leaves you wiped out at the end of every day. Likewise, reinventing oneself and changing the course of one's career path is also difficult to do. And look-- Alizée has done both!

So I think it's great that she's now got ten new songs she can tour with. But I suspect she's planning to get more, before attempting to do any major solo (sans MF/LB) performing again. Say, maybe once Annilly's in school, perhaps? The article said "Show-biz? Not her thing / Alizée is a victim of her original success..." and I think that's all very true. She's fighting mightily to get rid of her former "hot pop-tart" image. If we truly support her, we've got to hope she wins this fight.

[User22]

Eww naked girls!!! Haha actually I think that cover is quite awesome in the way that it can be sold anywhere in France. I mean come on, where can you get an electro magazine with a naked girl on the front? What 7 eleven? No, not at all. Those French are very loose when it comes to Pornography...

But that's besides the point. Nice article, thanks guys

[Roman]

@ Chuck, well, I don't think it's about her planning anything for the future. I don't think Alizée has ever done much planning for the future. Annily is already in school, by the way, even if pre-school or kindergarten style. But I think there is a point there that one may miss. According to those remarks, in her world "show-biz" is about schmoozing while in our world, it is about performing. I wish she could have the one without the other if that is how she operates, but maybe that's no so possible for someone at her level. One thing I'll say about her "intentions" is that despite a lot of what she has said in the last couple years, if Les Collines, like Moi... Lolita, happened to sell a million copies in the first few months I'll bet we'd be in for a lot more in the way of promotion and concerts, though I also do believe that she might very well try to rest on such success and like Mylène (supposedly) stay at home rather than deign to submit herself to all of these interviews or even tv performances. Alizée wants success in terms of sales, credibility, and thus the power to keep up the life of being a popular singer, but she also wants to do the performance and then leave it at that and go about her life. She supposedly has no desire or gets little thrill from marketing and promotion, or even putting herself in the position of interacting with the public (people she doesn't really know) just to watch them fawn over her. I guess that's understandable, especially since all of that comes with the possibility of people turning against her or facing criticism. Still, I think that when it is going well, she does like all of this. Alizée was told that people would probably attack her like they did Vanessa Paradis, and yet she still proceeded. Of course, that was probably a long time ago when it was still amazing and thrilling and a dream come true as she has admitted. Alizée definitely wanted to be a big star like most people, but I will concede that perhaps once she really had realized that dream she did want to move on. I guess she's pretty much said as much.

[SDB]

Originally Posted by Aaronius31

Those French are very loose when it comes to Pornography...

not only the french


PS
I wouldn't call a nipple pornography