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Rating: CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES: TEARS AND BLOOD
Twenty years after her previous work "Charlotte Forever", born from the brilliant mind of Serge Gainsbourg during a period of schizophrenic creativity, Charlotte Gainsbourg is back for an encore. After all, even Peter Gabriel took ten years to release the follow-up to "Us". During the time between the first and the second album, Charlotte has undergone a transformation: she has become a woman, an actress. Stunning in her slender and elegant silhouette, with a face reminiscent of a more feminine and sensual Patti Smith, Charlotte has everything it takes to become a sex symbol.
And here, in this new chapter of her discography, Gainsbourg improvises as a classy French chanteuse, accompanied by a host of illustrious and starry guests (Nigel Goldrich, Air, Jarvis Cocker). The anticipation was fierce and full of charm. That mysterious object called "5:55" kept catching my attention since its release, but only a few days ago did I buy it blindly, mainly attracted by a very sensual cover and a bargain price. Worst case scenario...
The initial atmosphere is already misleading: those two black sheep "5:55" and "AF605107" at the beginning, placed one after the other, are odd because they sound like carbon copies of Air. There's not the slightest arrangement or sound passage that could make you say "Ah, Well! This is Charlotte Gainsbourg! You can tell right away!". They're not bad but get tiring, with their lunar landscapes, dreamy and floating melodies, and piano just for seasoning. Her delicate voice floats like the niece of Carla Bruni, but much more in tune and at ease.
When you think the album might take off towards different arrangements, you're wrong: "The Operator" is yet another electro-dreamy parade by the French electronic duo. Charlotte loves to meow so much. She caresses, fascinates, seduces, but does not let go, does not dare, does not free herself.
The only moment of phosphorus is provided by the stunning "The Song That We Sing", a beautiful and simple ballad between acoustic and glitch electronics. The poetic lyrics almost bring tears (you must read the remarkable ode to the beauty mark in "Beauty Mark"), but the melodies are so repetitive and anonymous they almost bring a smile.
"5.55" flows light and caressing, only moved by a few rhythmic accelerations... I fall asleep, only to be awakened at the end by two truly sensual, but also original pieces like "Everything I cannot see", with the piano in the foreground and "Morning Song", the only song entirely written by the beautiful Gainsbourg.
Caressing, passionate, heart-wrenching but also repetitive and anonymous: what's left is the cover to put on display on my bedroom's record shelf.
And I expected a new "Lemon Incest"...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 AF607105 (04:30)
Melancholy
aviation
chocolate
perfume
cigarettes
frequent flyer
stow away
dislocation
sleeping
jets
wave goodbye
feel homesick
tranquilizers
bill of fare
cry easy
dvt
disapear into thin air
chorus
we wish you all a very happy pleasant flight
this is a journey to the center of the night
and the inflight entertainment's out of sight
here on af 607105
time difference
you're waking
chase the sun into your eyes
sleeping cities
dust hotel rooms
passengers look to the skies
fly over
your lifetime
and never touching down
my heart
is breaking
somewhere over saskatchewan
chorus
we wish you all a very happy pleasant flight
this is a journey to the center of the night
and the inflight entertainment's out of sight
here on af 607105
your life in
the wrong hands
savannah and frozen wastes
the flight path
the wingspan
below the earth rotates
i love you
i miss you
i cannot see your face
invent a
new persona
drunk here on the edge of space
all the things i carry with me
and all the things i left behind
and all the things that wait to meet me
hover in the air tonight
if i can only keep on moving
and never stop and think of me
and freefall through the years and decades
terminal velocity
chorus
we hope you had a very happy pleasant flight
this is our final destination so goodnight
like a stone we are now falling from the sky
farewell from af 607105
the cabin
is burning
i smile and feel complete
here amongst
total strangers
27 000 feet
suspended
isolation
kids throw toy planes in the street
one final
blaze of glory
viewed from a window seat
03 The Operation (03:59)
I want to explore you
i'm gonna get under your skin
so you can feel me running through your veins
i want to examine
every inch of your frame
the pressure points that cause your joy and pain
our love goes under the knife
there is no room for doubt
now i'm inside you
my hands can feel their way
further inside than i have ever been
now i can really
mess around with your heart
and fill it to the brim with broken dreams
our love goes under the knife
two lives may be saved
and if i pull this off
i'll refuse the nobel prize
instead i will look into your eyes
if i pull this off your whole body will be mine
and i'm prepared to work throughout the night
our love goes under the knife
nothing is taboo
...here on the cutting edge of science
too much information
i feel i'm getting lost
absorbed into the fibre of your soul
deep within the abbatoir
of your entrails your insides
lost in you forever far from home
our love goes under the knife
someone got too close
our love goes under the knife
the heart was rejected by the host
06 Beauty Mark (03:06)
I've got a beauty mark
written on my skin
close to my heart
my favourite part
my beauty mark
I keep it out of sight
safe from the world outside
this old battle scar
this secret part
my beauty mark
this little death
this mark of sin
forever printed on my skin
I'll keep it for you
this hidden place
this private part
this secret door into my heart
I'll keep it for you
this precious jewel
this darling bud
this tiny reservoir of blood
my beauty mark
I'll keep it for you
10 Everything I Cannot See (05:45)
I feel you all around me
you are everything i cannot see
as the ocean crawls onto the shoreline
so you lap at the edges of me
and now, as i'm walking
i know that you're watching me move
for as much as i need you
i must walk away from you
you're my life, you're my hope
you're the chain, you're the rope
you're my god, you're my hell
you're the sky, you're myself
you're the reason i'm living
you're all that i have to discover
you're the rain, you're the stars
you're so near, you're so far
you're my friend, you're my foe
you're the miles left to go
you are everything i ever wanted
and you are my lover
so i carry i carry the flowers
the flowers that are dead in my hands
they will rise up at the very sight of you
they will naturally understand
that today is the day
that we find out once and for all
now you know i must leave here
you must let me stand or fall
you're my life, you're my hope
you're the chain, you're the rope
you're my god, you're my hell
you're the sky, you're myself
you're the reason i'm living
you're all that i have to discover
you're the rain, you're the stars
you're so near, you're so far
you're my friend, you're my foe
you're the miles left to go
you are everything i ever wanted
and you are my lover
if i leave will you follow can i put my faith in you
you're my life, you're my hope
you're the chain, you're the rope
you're my god, you're my hell
you're the sky, you're myself
you're the reason i'm living
you're all that i have to discover
you're the rain, you're the stars
you're so near, you're so far
you're my friend, you're my foe
you're the miles left to go
you are everything i ever wanted
and you are my lover
and i love you now
as i loved you then
but this island life
just had to end
but you will allways be
my special friend
i will carry you with me
and we can love again
now the drizzle
soaks us to the skin
and the stars hang like a noose
so let's face this together
now this storm is finally though
you're my life, you're my hope
you're the chain, you're the rope
you're my god, you're my hell
you're the sky, you're myself
you're the reason i'm living
you're all that i have to discover
you're the rain, you're the stars
you're so near, you're so far
you're my friend, you're my foe
you're the miles left to go
you are everything i ever wanted
and you are my lover
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Other reviews
By Kid_A
The prevailing sensation is of a work devoted in every particular detail to the cult of hi-fi, a kind of extra-luxury packaging.
An album that will add a snobby touch to your collection, but that you'll struggle to take out of its case more than a couple of times.
By Torre Ste
The main idea was to write in music the thoughts of a person suffering from insomnia at 5:55 in the morning, thus describing daydreams and visions of ghosts.
She provided the ideas for the drafting of the album, but above all, she contributed her whispered voice, performing the forty-two minutes of music without a flaw.
By O__O
A song imbued with an almost alien mood, a hypnotic rhythm that permeates the skin.
Yes, now I am happy. I have managed to find the right path again.
