Mylène Farmer
L'Autre...

THE REVIEW

Do you love mystery? Cursed poems? Are you fed up with the commercial pop of recent years?

Try taking a leap back to the distant 1991… precisely in France, where an artist from the French music scene was about to become a true icon. Nowadays, the woman in question, Mylène Farmer, is, yes, a respected singer for her image and her turbulent career: but she lacks imagination in her latest works!!! After launching the lolita Alizée worldwide with her composer Laurent Boutonnat, to whom (sly lady) she followed up with a greatest hits that made her known in countries beyond France, Farmer unequivocally shows that "The good times are over"…

But in the past, it was different.

In 1991, after two award-winning albums ("Cendres de lune" and "Ainsi soit je…"), Mylène returns to her eagerly awaiting fans with lots of newness: to start, her new look, very short hair maintaining the red tint that has always distinguished her from other singers; she will then present herself more pessimistic than ever, and this mood can already be found in the single "Désenchantée" which was released in March 1991 and completely revolutionized the singer's life: from the single’s sales (almost 1 million copies sold) her third album, which would be released just a month later, "L’autre…" benefited positively. And it's an apocalypse: the so-called "unbalanced" fans of the singer run to all the stores to grab this gem of French pop music. At first listen, anyone who has never heard Mylène Farmer remains indifferent and skeptical, but I can assure you that after watching the videos that accompanied the 4 extracted singles, you'll be left speechless. Because this is precisely the greatest cunning of the Farmer/Boutonnat duo: gluing you to the screen even if you’re not at all interested in their musical genre. But upon viewing these short films, the listener is captivated and after some hesitation, will believe that everything Farmer touches is gold. Certainly, "L’autre…" is not from a musical standpoint the best work of Farmer, there are definitely others more commercial and catchy. But it is the album that consecrated her, that placed her on a pedestal from which she risks falling in recent years…

The album opens with "Agnus Dei", probably the darkest and most tenebrous song of her entire career, introduced by a voice I would dare to say quite satanic, and there, Farmer, among various religious words, will be accompanied by a "sect-like" choir singing the famous prayer Agnus Dei. It continues with the first single "Désenchantée", the anthem of a lost generation, probably that of the famous Eighties (since the new decade had just begun) which Mylène is ashamed to be part of. The sound is very simple, little refined, but very effective. It continues with the track that gives the album its title, "L’autre… ", a painful but quite optimistic ballad in which the singer expresses her love for the "other", that is Laurent Boutonnat. It then comes to "Je t’aime mélancolie", the third single extracted, where we can finally hear a more rhythmic sound, accompanied by incessant piano, but which greatly recalls Madonna's 80s style. The remixed version of the single is much more particular. In "Psychiatric", more space is given to the music, but nothing new: some say it is a song that recalls Michael Jackson's "Thriller", with its pop danceable base. "Regrets", the second single extracted, is the first of a long series of duets that Farmer will do: in this case, the lucky one is newcomer Jean-Louis Murat, perfect for the melancholic atmospheres of this wonderful song. Then Farmer tries to lift spirits with "Pas de doute", a cheerful pop song little esteemed by fans, for its too much resemblance to "Pourvu qu'elles soient douces": in fact, the song was supposed to be the soundtrack for the continuation of the PQSD video and thus the much-loved Libertina.

The eighth track, "Il n’y a pas d’ailleurs", takes us into the singer's gray world, with a very particular ending: a funeral march accompanying Farmer to the end of the track. The fourth single extracted, "Beyond my control", with its dark and frightening air, earned Farmer her first censorship, not only for the lyrics in which a murder is described too "blatantly", but also for the video, obscene in the eyes of the critics already impatient with past scandals. It closes with the relaxing "Nous souviendrons nous", a spiritual song, with a sound as ecclesiastic as ever.

After "L’autre…" Farmer will never taste again the success had with this opus. Some are still waiting for the return to origins, which never comes. In fact, Farmer continues to match her creation Alizée with catchy songs yes, but which for an artist like her are operettas for brothels. It makes me think she was much more mature in previous years than now.

But as they say, hope is the last to die…

TRACKLIST

1 Agnus Dei 2 Désenchantée 3 L’autre… 4 Je T’aime Mélancolie 5 Psychiatric 6 Regrets (En duo avec Jean-Louis Murat) 7 Pas De Doute 8 Il N’y a Pas D’Ailleurs 9 Beyond My Control 10 Nous Souviendrons Nous

SINGLES: Désenchantée - Regrets (En duo avec J. L. Murat) - Je t’aime mélancolie - Beyond my control