Alizée assessment on Reddit

[Aragorn97]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

They then felt all of her success was due to MF/LB. To prove them wrong, she had to come out with something way over the top good and she hasn't done that yet as far as an album.

I think Psychédélices was so different from the first two albums because Alizée herself wanted to prove this with her "personal" work.
But I tend to think that most people know her thanks to the lolita image and so everything they expect from her is that lolita image. So this expectation (which isn't necessarily the best for her after the first 2 albums) always makes everything disappointing for them.

[CleverCowboy]

Originally Posted by Aragorn97

What I can't explain is how "5" was a flop. The songs are beautiful and accessible and she looked great. It is not the album that will stuck in your mind but it is above the average in my opinion. Is it always because of her management?

I am going to combine my answer to this question and also a response to something that Scruffy said into a merged post since they are related.

The "5" album was good and I enjoy it. Because many of the songs are of a highly personal nature, I often have a hard time listening to it because it just makes me mad because of the things Alizee had to go through. I do like Boxing Club a lot.

Even if Alizee had the best management in the world, would it have made a difference for 5? Maybe a little bit. Who was her target audience? Her fan base only or did she want to expand beyond that? The album might have given a portion of her fan base what they wanted, but by the poor sales number, it showed it missed the mark on the remainder of her fan base and also on pulling in new fans.

Alizee has one thing working against her when it comes to her singing - she's French and sings in French. Unless your name is Mylene Farmer, it is very hard to make it big in France as a French musical artist.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

I wanted to add one more sentiment. When Psych came out the people mainly of France who are so important to her success, were wondering what they were going to get with Alizee and I think they were deeply disappointed. They then felt all of her success was due to MF/LB. To prove them wrong, she had to come out with something way over the top good and she hasn't done that yet as far as an album.

I've wondered if it would make any difference at all what kind of album she would have released in 2007? What was their expectation of success? The French seem to be really fickle about their home-grown artists. I've followed Lorie Pester, one of my favorite Les Enfoires singers, and she is continually promoting herself on FaceBook and other social media. She wrote a book. She supports good causes. She makes appearances at events often. Yet, she will always be a French musical artist with mediocre success.

I researched the concert history at the Olympia concert venue in Paris for 2007 at concertarchives.org. It's one of the big ones. I chose 2007 because that is when Psych was released.

Here is the list of the concerts for that year (I am assuming nothing is missing but might be wrong).



It is dominated by US/UK acts. There is not one French artist on there.

Unfortunately Alizee missed the mark appealing to her home country but it is not entirely her fault. Times were changing and I'm not totally convinced that a third album with Mylene would have saved her singing career. Mylene could not prop up Julia's career even with all those videos. It's like France moved on, and Alizee disappearing for two years did not help things either.

[Alex Rien]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

WHAT WENT WRONG?
One could argue that Alizée made two fatal mistakes in her career: the first was leaving Myréne and Laurent behind, and the second one is having made Une Enfant du Siècle. Leaving Myréne surely derailed her career somewhat, alongside the hiatus she took after her second album,

It is a pity that Alizee did not meet the expectations of Mylene and Laurent and left her producers. And I think that it is very wrong. A fairy tale exists until you destroy it. I still understand when they produce only financially at the initial stage, and then only dictate, for example, what to wear, where to go, what to say, what color to dye your hair... Or when someone prevents you from expressing yourself in your work exactly as you want. But having the talents of a singer and dancer to get away from such a brilliant musician and poet with a lot of experience..? This is about the same as for some violinist to drop out of a free study with Paganini and go to study at a music school. Or some model to break the contract with L'oreal and go to advertise PVC windows.