Une Enfant Du Siècle News/Discussion!

[Ben]

Originally Posted by Roman

it was Mon./Tues. last week.

Yeah, and actually the text is the same as what was posted there on the 9th...
http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?p=143989

[wildfire]

Originally Posted by Edcognito

A Child of the Century, huh? Sounds like my last birthday party...

I am looking forward to this. Just hope she includes at least one rocker song...

I hope she includes a Par Les Paupieres type and an Old-Skool Alizée soulful, breathy & un-adultered-by-electronica voiced "Cœur déjà pris" type songs.

Originally Posted by Roman

"Just"? Dude, where have you been? It's been like ... multiple days or something. Actually, it was Mon./Tues. last week.

Makes sense.. I was "away" from Alizée newz for two whole unfun weeks! SO you'll excuse the.. well... girly scream!

[Deepwaters]

Originally Posted by Edcognito

A Child of the Century, huh? Sounds like my last birthday party...

LOL Ed, Scruffydog and I are both older than you. So you get no sympathy. (Happy birthday btw.)

I think it's important to recognize what Alizée herself is shooting for in terms of success. She said when Psychédélices first came out that she would be satisfied with 75,000 - 100,000 sales, and that the golden age of the CD was over and she was lucky to catch it at peak with her earlier albums. She did not achieve that target in France but overall she did. Yet although the commercial success was sufficient to keep her going, she has to be aware, and so are the record companies, that the album didn't meet her goals at home.

There are some mysteries, and we will probably never know all the truth about what happened within her circle over that album. I remember she said at one point that she might have another child after the concert tour, but clearly that's not happening. She's completely reconfigured her production team, working with new people. Jean Fauque, Daniel Darc, Oxmo Puccino, etc. are none of them represented on this album -- from what we hear. Apparently, neither is Jérémy, although that's a little less certain.

My take is that she is trying something new, correcting mistakes made with Psych, and that's the reason for the changes both in plans and in team. She's approaching the lead-up to the release differently, with more mystery and more teasing. She's doing a focused album around a theme rather than a style melange. The whole thing seems to be done more professionally, with greater information security.

I understand that people are on pins and needles, anticipating and hungering for this new album, but there's no point in asking her to rush things, she neither should, nor will, nor probably can. It's also important to have an open mind, and not fixate on a particular style or type of music that we want to hear. That's guaranteed disappointment. Me -- I think of Alizée both as an artist I respect and as someone I personally care about. Also, I know that this will be a departure for her, not a repeat of something she's done in the past, either from the M/L days or from Psych. I'm prepared for that, and prepared to appreciate the new work for its own merits. If I don't like it, I'll tell her so, and tell her why. If I do, which is more likely, I'll tell her that, too. But I avoid preconceptions of what the music will be. It will have her voice on it, and be the product of her creativity allied with the talents of others that she chooses. That's all I need to know, to know it's worth checking out.

[ALS]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

LOL Ed, Scruffydog and I are both older than you. So you get no sympathy. (Happy birthday btw.)

Add me to that list also.

BTW I'll always be younger than her dad.

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by Roman

I read somewhere that her first proposal for a single was rejected by Jive/Epic and so she had to redo it (by 'it' one means... choose a new song, prepare a new video, ?). I'm sure no one would announce anything like that and for all I know it's a complete lie, but it's somewhat plausible.

This is just another rumor at this point. One we'll probably never know wether it has any substance to it or not. But it does worry me. Anyone who is familiar with me knows I'm no fan of her last album. One of my criticisms of the Psych era was that who ever is managing her career and unfortunately, I think it is her who is calling most of the shots, can not tell the difference between a good song and a mediocre one. But it is what it is. Just a rumor at this point and I'll continue to be very optimistic about this new album. To remain as a fan, there is not much point in thinking otherwise.

[ALS]

I have to agree Scruffy. One of my biggest complaints was the promotion of the Album. It was in my opinion mediocre at best. She also wasn't up to speed in the first couple of months with her performances. After three or so months she got her rhythm and her performances really improved.

She knew when Psychédélices was coming out and should have been in the dance studio working on her moves. I'm hoping this time she is on the ball and has learned from her pass mistakes in 2007-2008 and is ready to jump on this one the day of the release.

Four years with Myleen and Laurant should have taught her that perception and promotion is ninety percent of the success of any Album.

[Edcognito]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

LOL Ed, Scruffydog and I are both older than you. So you get no sympathy. (Happy birthday btw.)

Yeah, my birthday is in February, so your either REALLY early, or REALLY late!

And stop being so bloody reasonable!

I know she will do as she wants to, and is inclined to do - just expressing a generic "wish". Meh, I'll still buy it, but if its too much "rap" style... well, I won't be in a rush.

TBQH - I just hope she's happy, whether I like the next album or not.


Scruffy, Deep, ALS and Edcognito...


NINJA EDIT: 1100 posts...

[Roman]

Originally Posted by ALS

...
Four years with Myleen and Laurant should have taught her that perception and promotion is ninety percent of the success of any Album.

I don't know if I'd say ninety percent... She does understand that principal. She has talked about it somewhat before. She said, it's half appearance and half the music or something like that. The thing is, there is work that one must simply do, there is creative work that one must have the ability to do (and luck to be liked?), and there is organization of one's self and others. None of that is easy. We'd like to think that Alizée can simply choose to do something, that she has all the abilities and support necessary to suceed in whatever she tries to do, but obviously it's not like that. Her talent is what it is. I think she needed to find a place of power in the creation of a product and that still has not quite been brought to reality.

She was once asked about the seeming fact that more and more a musician/singer must go on tv shows, do more appearances, in short, engage a lot with "the public" (or fans perhaps). She was not cool with that. She said that it's not what she wants to do. And guess what? She hasn't done that. She did that for a few months while promoting Psychédélices, but I will guess that the work-part or business-side of show biz, which is so much of that kind of activity, she doesn't care for it. She really looked happy to be at the Autour de la Guitare concert. So, why hasn't she done more of that in the year and a half since? One can only guess - everything from she was distracted to no one invited her. The thing is, it's not just that it's more demanding now, it's that a person must be an entertainer at heart to want to go on stage and find a way to get there. Some people, frankly whether they are particularly talented or not, seem to find doing that to be a normal part of their life. They are comfortable there or at least are driven to do it. Those people are fairly unusual, though there are a lot more of them than we know about because most of them have rather small followings. It's not a matter of having huge success. It's more a matter of just being that person. In any case, you have to want it.

Alizée has stated that she likes being able to go in front of thousands of people one day and go back to her normal life the next. Maybe it's all still more of a fantasy gig. So, we get an album every 3 years or so, which she certainly seems to put a lot of time into when she's actually working on it, and maybe some appearances around when that comes out. She's been doing this forever and in the majors for like nine years and on her own as an adult for like six years. I think she understands.

And yeah, like Edcognito said, I hope Alizée is happy with what she's done. Is it enough to be fulfilling for her though? Hmm. I think she's at that age where she needs to find "fulfilling" now and that is my wish for her future, whatever it may be. I think she has been working on that for some time now. She has had a lot to look back on fondly. I think that helps.

[Deepwaters]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

One of my criticisms of the Psych era was that who ever is managing her career and unfortunately, I think it is her who is calling most of the shots, can not tell the difference between a good song and a mediocre one.

I'm going to completely disagree with this. There are no mediocre songs on Psych. What shows this is that everyone who says that sort of thing, has different songs that they don't think are very good. This points up something about the album that I've said before: when you present a wide variety of styles, nobody is going to like the entire thing. It's not because certain songs are bad or even mediocre, but simply because musical tastes vary.

I don't much like L'effet. But there are plenty of people who love it. Those are people who really like soft smooth jazz, which I don't. L'effet is not a mediocre song. It's a very good piece of soft smooth jazz, and if I liked soft smooth jazz I'm sure I'd love it, as many do. Whatever songs from Psych you believe are mediocre, I'll bet any sum you like that many people rave over them. And the reverse is also true -- for every song you love from that album, there will be people who hate it.

There is criticism to be leveled in how Alizée handled her career during the Psych phase. In many ways, she screwed the pooch. However, the quality of the music is not among them.

[Roman]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

I'm going to completely disagree with this. There are no mediocre songs on Psych. What shows this is that everyone who says that sort of thing, has different songs that they don't think are very good. This points up something about the album that I've said before: when you present a wide variety of styles, nobody is going to like the entire thing. It's not because certain songs are bad or even mediocre, but simply because musical tastes vary.

I don't much like L'effet. But there are plenty of people who love it. Those are people who really like soft smooth jazz, which I don't. L'effet is not a mediocre song. It's a very good piece of soft smooth jazz, and if I liked soft smooth jazz I'm sure I'd love it, as many do. Whatever songs from Psych you believe are mediocre, I'll bet any sum you like that many people rave over them. And the reverse is also true -- for every song you love from that album, there will be people who hate it.

There is criticism to be leveled in how Alizée handled her career during the Psych phase. In many ways, she screwed the pooch. However, the quality of the music is not among them.

As to that, if I must give my opinion (and I guess I must) I'd say that all the serious effort was put into creating the album, and the promotion was more like tossed in afterward rather than being an integral part of the product. Even there, some parts of that effort were good, just not great and the timing of things was not great either. By timing, I mean, build buzz and then deliver when it's at it's peak and deliver with something impressive. I get the idea that Alizée just wasn't as interested in that part of the adventure. She doesn't have time for it. And that's along side simply not great response and 2008/9 being bad years what with all the global depression and so forth. Then, to speak of the album. I think people were expecting more of a dance album from Alizée. Something high energy and "poppy". There was a little on there, but not like we figured she might do. And of course, Alizée 2007 was competing with Alizée 2000-2003 and that's a hard act to follow.