[2010-02-16] Les collines (New Song in French & English)

[Toc De Mac]

Here's my take on the French bits:

Thanks to Deepwaters for input.
--------------------------------------------
The Hills

Hunted, I've reached the hills,
I've gone underground,
Thrown off the hound-dogs, covered my tracks,
Disguised my flight,
My bags are empty, my heart light,
Light

...

New York, I'm sorry, I loved you so,
But I have to go,
Your neverending windows*, your golden skyline,
I'll do without them,*
Beside the Hesperides, I will go dress
The timid big-cats, the wounded swans,
Wounded
--------------------------------------------

*Shop windows
*Literally: I want to do without them.

prendre le maquis: d'origine corse, signifiant se réfugier dans la forêt pour se soustraire aux autorités ou à une vendetta

[Deepwaters]

Not bad, Toc de Mac, but I would suggest one small change. I think "Je veux" in Je veux m'en passer would better be translated as "I will" than as "I want to." In context, she doesn't want to do without New York, but she will.

[Toc De Mac]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

Not bad, Toc de Mac, but I would suggest one small change. I think "Je veux" in Je veux m'en passer would better be translated as "I will" than as "I want to." In context, she doesn't want to do without New York, but she will.

I was hesitating between the two. And I think it sounds better as "will." My thoughts were that she perhaps cannot do without the city, knows the atmosphere is harmful to her, so she "wants"/tries to do without it.

I'll leave both.

[timonjacobs]

Fast little remix:

Hope we get some professional remixes soon.

[Criss_pl]

Great job Toc de Mac. I made my try, but I didn't catch all the French phrases
Now it's clear.
But I think that further and deeper analysis should be postponed to relase of the album, then we'll be able to refer to album wholly and the full story standing behind it. Now it's time for speculations.
Who is the person (maybe what's the thing) she 'never wanna leave'?

@docdtv
Don't you think that you are going a bit too far sometimes

I have some thoughts on this song, but I didn't connected them into a coherent interpretation.

[LadyCameronXIII]

Originally Posted by aaroniu31

Are you saying that her songs will be on iTunes(French yah, but hopefully American iTunes)

Originally Posted by paintballpdh19

lets hope it comes to the American Itunes so that her music is spread here to the US and posssibly gain a lot more fans here.... and maybe, just maybe if enough people are fans, she will grace us with an appearance. (its a long shot though)

Well, I'm not saying that it would be in the American iTunes Store--though that would be very cool if Jive Epic France allowed the new album to be sold on our shores digitally speaking--but rather that someone encoded the ID3 tags that were there with that version of iTunes; guess they think 9 blows or something. *shrugs*

[Ran Vijay]

Well, I like both the songs released so far, Les Collines seems better than Limelight. But I have a question her earlier singles were accompanied with a video. why no video for Les collines?

[FanDeAliFee]

Originally Posted by Criss_pl

@docdtv
Don't you think that you are going a bit too far sometimes

<i>Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?</i>
- <a href="http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Browning#Men_and_Women_.281855.29">Robert Browning (1812–1889), <i>Men and Women</i> (1855)</a>

[paintballpdh19]

i still like Limelight better than this song. i feel that Limelight is more catchy than LC

[Roman]

Originally Posted by Roman

I agree about the English lyrics. I feel like this album so far is one that was put together to be released quickly in summer or maybe autumn 2009 to take advantage of the popularity Alizée had and actually maybe people like Château Marmont as well. I kind of felt like that is what they should have done and sure enough... I really like the music at the beginning of Les Collines, but maybe we now expect too much after the good lyrics writing of the past. Overall these first two just feel rushed to me, though yes, one can not imagine that they could take any more time to work on it. It is what it is.

I think I like Les Collines better too. So far it seems catchy while I'm listening to it, but not annoyingly so in spite of the repetition and lack of a full third stanza. Ok, 8 more songs to go.

Edit: ok, after reading doctv I remember that oh yeah, they do have some interesting references here. I think I just didn't really get it. I sort of think now like they really only had a couple songs and stretched it into an entire album (well, duh, it's a concept album, it's supposed to be like that to some extent). Anyway...

to quote Deep:

it's archetypically Corsican, and that suggests to me that she's drawing all of this back to herself and her own life and situation.

There is some reason why she chose to produce a theme album about the life of Edie Sedgwick, some link or similarity or resonance between Sedgwick and Alizée herself. It can't be anything simple or obvious, because beyond rapid fame and sex appeal there's not much surface similarity at all. I'm going to be listening to the songs from this album with that in mind, and looking for what she's telling us about herself in the course of singing about the life of Ms. Sedgwick

I agree that one gets a definite vibe (whether true or not) of this tying back to Alizée. That's a good thing since it ties the work tighter to her. There is actually a bit of something that I remember from the movie "Factory Girl". Someone said something about Edie being the first woman to be a celebrity without really doing anything in particular. I think it was the times. Warhol was an artist, but that's even debateable. It's not really the same with Alizée. She's a singer. But still, one could almost suggest that she just sort of fell into this position and it was the force of the whole persona that Alizée represented that made her a celebrity not because she set out to be a great singer. She makes music, but as far as I know has no education in music and just tells people what she likes. She does not even work with a band, but now has done four albums with three groups of people. So, one can make the argument that like Edie Alizée is a celebrity largely of personality, in spite of the paradoxical fact that she is hardly what you'd call outgoing and in your face. In any case, this analogy fuels the imagination and I guess maybe that makes it a good one to play on for this album even if personally have no particular interest in Segwick or those times.