[2009-10-20] Official Site Updates / Easter Eggs!

[Ben]

Originally Posted by wmedia

http://www.uneenfantdusiecle.com/
links now to Sonymusic.fr

http://www.alizee-officiel.com/
has got black background

Interesting. This is true in IE, but in Firefox both sites are unchanged.

Also that video, as others have pointed out, is a FAKE.

Last, must say I'm still not sure about the Jeremy translation, since French posters seem to be taking it as meaning there probably won't be anything in November, not as a statement of his ignorance (e.g., Bryan: "j'espérais tellement que ce soit pour novembre... tant pis, encore un peu de patience")?

[Deepwaters]

Originally Posted by Ben

Last, must say I'm still not sure about the Jeremy translation, since French posters seem to be taking it as meaning there probably won't be anything in November, not as a statement of his ignorance (e.g., Bryan: "j'espérais tellement que ce soit pour novembre... tant pis, encore un peu de patience")?

I'm quite confident that if the statement is reported accurately he was in fact claiming ignorance, but if Jérémy knows of no single being released in November it's a sign (regardless of what he said) that there won't be one. I was just perplexed as to why he would be ignorant, that's all. His wording isn't a sign that there WILL be a single released in November, certainly.

In any case, there is movement and activity, so whether a single is released in November or not, things are happening. It's very exciting to me, all of it.

[Ben]

Originally Posted by Ben

Interesting. This is true in IE, but in Firefox both sites are unchanged.

Ah wait, I figured this out:

www.uneenfantdusiecle.com is still the three videos.
uneenfantdusiecle.com without the "www" goes to sonymusic.fr.
alizee-officiel.com (with or without www) is black in IE, white in Firefox. Probably just a bug.

[Roman]

Originally Posted by jung_adore_ALIZEE

one day one will realize who starts Pop Heart until that day I bid good day

Whatever that means.

many people don't realize what a lot of her songs are truly about

Truly about? Maybe there are multiple meanings, maybe there is intentional teasing ambiguity for the sake of the art of language. How much varies from song to song. Provocative, I will say yes, certainly about Moi... Lolita or JEAM. I don't find that offensive though, quite the contrary. The consequences implied by the story told by Lolita, are, like the original book, edgy one might say, but the song and of course if one knows much of anything about Alizée herself, is not of the offensive type, unless one is particularly sensitive about such things. Hell, NPR had a special 50th anniversary special for the book in 2005. I thought it was a great book albeit having content that was at times disturbing. The song played a "pop" version on the theme, hardly something as depraved as the content of the book played out in cinematic form multiple times by young ladies around Alizée's age at the time I might add. It's about the characterization, not whether or not young girls are going to start acting like that, which possibility is what makes it perhaps offensive to some. It's hardly surprising coming from Mylène who is anything but squeamish about portraying "rude" characterizations (or should I say Laurent, who is after all the cinematographer here).

If you (meaning anyone in general) are going to call it offensive, compare it to Christina Aguilera's "Dirty" and then come back and tell me the adorable Alizée could possibly be offensive. -By the way it is not at all my kind of thing, but eventually I must admit that I like the song because her singing is good and the way it sounds it's catchy.-

You'd think Jérémy would know about this or that? Well, that's making presumptions about their relationship and his involvement. Do you know anything about the other work that Jérémy does? They aren't exactly members of a "band".

One can also easily see that J/E has a lot going on all the time with big artists. I suspect management issues as always. I'm sure as fine a corporation as Sony Music is there has been so much change and it's split over some many sub-groups, geographies, etc. etc. that it really must be a god-awful mess. So many fingers in so many pies. One must have a special sense for how to navigate the world I think, in order to do things in an efficient manner. One could only hope that Alizée spends her free time (time spent on this) focusing on getting something done. In this Age of Distraction, how does anyone get anything done? There is no conventional way left. Everyone is a dinosaur and anyone can face a challenge at any time. I suspect that's the key to Alizée acting the way she does. That is, if she doesn't do things the way that feels right for her, she'll totally freak out.

And what's with this long tradition of supposedly bumping into Jérémy on the street to find out what Alizée is working on? Is it just me or... ? The inscrutable Alizée strikes again, and again, and again... So, this is apparently forever her thing. I had wished that would end in 2008, mais bon.

I am always reminded when these questions of power of the record company come up of when I heard the guys from Weezer on the radio a couple years ago and the one guy was saying how they were all pissed when they found out that the record company had made the deal to put their song on the Windows 95 install CD. Notice that they were neither asked about it nor even told about it until after the fact or they found out some other way. Of course, as he indicated, once they found out how much exposure they would be getting from that, they realized it was very good for them. (first time I ever heard of them)

@Sitting by the bay - Yeah, I think it's really a new fan's game. But I guess we're hooked and what else are we going to talk about?

@Chuck - Yes, welcome. Jung has taken over as our resident leaver of pickled herrings.

@Ben - Browsers *shrug*

[Euphoria]

I never saw anything wrong with her in the early days and I'm a female. Yes, she was provocative, but it was always in a classy way. And yes, many people don't really understand the lyrics but let's look at the definition of a lolita. n. A seductive adolescent girl. Okay...you think other pop stars aren't seductive? I dunno, I don't see why people get so worked up.

Besides, those days are so long gone why does it matter? It's going on 10 years ago. Even Psychédélices was almost 3 years ago. People produce amazing albums in a year so don't give me that "its worth the wait crap." Because whether it was a disappointment to fans, the album sales were a joke.

[Deepwaters]

Originally Posted by Euphoria

People produce amazing albums in a year so don't give me that "its worth the wait crap." Because whether it was a disappointment to fans, the album sales were a joke.

260,000 worldwide. Not really a joke. In France, it didn't do as well as expected. The question being why. Discussions of disappointed/unrealistic fan expectations, or what there might have been about the album itself that caused the poor French sales, are attempts to explain that.

For me, it IS worth the wait, because regardless of what anyone else thought I love Psychédélices. I consider it overall her best album of the three.

Lyrically there's simply no comparison. Gourmandises and MCE are nowhere near Mylène Farmer's best efforts; there are some clever lyrics in them but nothing to compare with her work on her own music. The songs in Psych, especially the ones written by Jean Fauque, are much more profound and powerful.

Musically it's more ambiguous. Laurent Boutannat is a wonderful composer and his work is more polished and smooth than anything in Psych (or most other music for that matter). But it's also less daring, less inventive, less interesting. That counts for a lot to me, and so overall I would rate Psych the best of the three musically as well as lyrically, although not as unambiguously. It's more creative, but not as well crafted.

Two flaws in it have been identified and I think both are real. One is that it covers too much stylistic ground. Although every song is excellent for the type of music it is, there are so many different types that any given listener will surely find something to dislike. For example, I'm not fond of L'effet, not because I don't think it's a good jazz number but because I don't really like jazz much. Many people have similar reservations about Decollage because they don't like rap/hip hop.

The other, which Ben pointed out, is that Alizée didn't completely jump the gap from girlhood to womanhood, trying to eat her cake and have it. Songs like Lilly Town, Lonely Liste and Jamais Plus seemed to try to recreate the old style. I don't think a full jump would have helped Psych sales frankly, but it's something she probably should do with the upcoming album.

My take on the poor sales in Europe is this. I think that in the beginning, many of the old Alizée fans rushed to buy her new album, and it zoomed to #7 on the charts. But they were disappointed because she wasn't the same, word got around, and the sales dropped. Not enough effort was made to develop a new fan base (or perhaps it couldn't be done with that album), and that's what will really be needed.

Just the same: I didn't come to it with expectations of seeing the old Lilly. I came expecting something new and different and for the most part I got it and I was impressed, with the reservations noted above. So I'm ready for this new album, and believe it will be worth the wait.

Some will be disappointed, though. Those who don't want her old style to change will not like it. But I'm sure that I will.

Originally Posted by Roman

You'd think Jérémy would know about this or that? Well, that's making presumptions about their relationship and his involvement. Do you know anything about the other work that Jérémy does? They aren't exactly members of a "band".

Dude -- he's her husband. It has nothing to do with him being part of the "band." If he had absolutely no involvement in this album in any way (which is possible), he should still know something as important as that.

[Fenris]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

260,000 worldwide. Not really a joke. In France, it didn't do as well as expected. The question being why. Discussions of disappointed/unrealistic fan expectations, or what there might have been about the album itself that caused the poor French sales, are attempts to explain that.

For me, it IS worth the wait, because regardless of what anyone else thought I love Psychédélices. I consider it overall her best album of the three.

Lyrically there's simply no comparison. Gourmandises and MCE are nowhere near Mylène Farmer's best efforts; there are some clever lyrics in them but nothing to compare with her work on her own music. The songs in Psych, especially the ones written by Jean Fauque, are much more profound and powerful.

Musically it's more ambiguous. Laurent Boutannat is a wonderful composer and his work is more polished and smooth than anything in Psych (or most other music for that matter). But it's also less daring, less inventive, less interesting. That counts for a lot to me, and so overall I would rate Psych the best of the three musically as well as lyrically, although not as unambiguously. It's more creative, but not as well crafted.

Two flaws in it have been identified and I think both are real. One is that it covers too much stylistic ground. Although every song is excellent for the type of music it is, there are so many different types that any given listener will surely find something to dislike. For example, I'm not fond of L'effet, not because I don't think it's a good jazz number but because I don't really like jazz much. Many people have similar reservations about Decollage because they don't like rap/hip hop.

Excellent analysis imho. I fully agree.
I rarely listen to her old stuff nowadays.
Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful and nostalgic to think of the Lili of old, to watch the old vids and especially en concert.

But times have changed, she has moved on, and i love psych very much, although it's far from perfect as Deep already pointed out.

As for the new album, i consider it worth the wait, because i don't expect Alizée to deliver bad music; different maybe, and probably not to the liking of some old fans...we will see.

[wildfire]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

260,000 worldwide.

is that how many copies of Psychédélices sold worldwide?

[Euphoria]

I guess it's just a matter of opinion. I found Psychédélices to be a good album but kind of a snoozefest as well. And most of the lyrics were too nonsensical for my taste. I always thought Mylène did a good job of identifying Alizée's personality with parts of her own. Especially in the song Veni Vedi Vici. Psychédélices album sales were really rescued by Mexico, otherwise it would have pretty much been a complete failure. But I'm not one for focusing on the past. I truly hope she finds what she is looking for and that she has success, she's got the talent.

[pepelepew]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

260,000 worldwide. Not really a joke. In France, it didn't do as well as expected. The question being why. Discussions of disappointed/unrealistic fan expectations, or what there might have been about the album itself that caused the poor French sales, are attempts to explain that.

For me, it IS worth the wait, because regardless of what anyone else thought I love Psychédélices. I consider it overall her best album of the three.

Lyrically there's simply no comparison. Gourmandises and MCE are nowhere near Mylène Farmer's best efforts; there are some clever lyrics in them but nothing to compare with her work on her own music. The songs in Psych, especially the ones written by Jean Fauque, are much more profound and powerful.

Musically it's more ambiguous. Laurent Boutannat is a wonderful composer and his work is more polished and smooth than anything in Psych (or most other music for that matter). But it's also less daring, less inventive, less interesting. That counts for a lot to me, and so overall I would rate Psych the best of the three musically as well as lyrically, although not as unambiguously. It's more creative, but not as well crafted.

Two flaws in it have been identified and I think both are real. One is that it covers too much stylistic ground. Although every song is excellent for the type of music it is, there are so many different types that any given listener will surely find something to dislike. For example, I'm not fond of L'effet, not because I don't think it's a good jazz number but because I don't really like jazz much. Many people have similar reservations about Decollage because they don't like rap/hip hop.

The other, which Ben pointed out, is that Alizée didn't completely jump the gap from girlhood to womanhood, trying to eat her cake and have it. Songs like Lilly Town, Lonely Liste and Jamais Plus seemed to try to recreate the old style. I don't think a full jump would have helped Psych sales frankly, but it's something she probably should do with the upcoming album.

My take on the poor sales in Europe is this. I think that in the beginning, many of the old Alizée fans rushed to buy her new album, and it zoomed to #7 on the charts. But they were disappointed because she wasn't the same, word got around, and the sales dropped. Not enough effort was made to develop a new fan base (or perhaps it couldn't be done with that album), and that's what will really be needed.

Just the same: I didn't come to it with expectations of seeing the old Lilly. I came expecting something new and different and for the most part I got it and I was impressed, with the reservations noted above. So I'm ready for this new album, and believe it will be worth the wait.

Some will be disappointed, though. Those who don't want her old style to change will not like it. But I'm sure that I will.



Dude -- he's her husband. It has nothing to do with him being part of the "band." If he had absolutely no involvement in this album in any way (which is possible), he should still know something as important as that.

Excellent analysis and I agree wholeheartedly. You stated your case much more eloquently than I could. Another thing working against Psych sales in France is that I gather there was a lot of resentment towards Alizee leaving Mylene. Not that Alizee doesn't have talent ,but much of her initial success great production, lyrics, melodies not withstanding was catapulted by loyalty to Mylene and Laurent. Also the long gap in time and all the other bla bla bla stuff that fans have discussed and I won't bore you with.