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Album review
Mylène Farmer
Virgin, goddess or whore?
Paris
05/01/2001 -
Picking up Mylène Farmer's new album, Mylenium Tour, makes an instant impact on the listener. Encased in an embossed golden box which swings open from the centre like two halves of a temple door, the album cover bears an image of Mylène posing in front of the huge blue 'goddess' statue which dominated the stage on her recent tour. Turn the mysterious golden package over, however, and you'll find a neatly-framed photo of Mylène's naked buttocks sheathed in an ultra-transparent dress!
This is the game that Mylène has always played, mixing the sacred and the sexual, the earthy and the divine, slipping smoothly between her dual roles of vestal virgin and provocative whore. Such behaviour has provoked outrage amongst detractors, but brought fervent adoration from millions of fans. Touring the country with her Mylenium show last year, Mylène played deftly with her two personas, juxtaposing New Age catechism and risqué lyrics. The singer's sumptuous stage show featured colourful choreography, over-the-top stage sets and robotic movements from the afore-mentioned 'goddess' which tended to overshadow her material at times. In short, Mylène's recent concerts revolved around the same elaborate series of pseudo-spiritual rituals that dominated her first tour eleven years ago.
But somehow the live album of Mylenium Tour restores the songs to their rightful place at the forefront of things. This has a somewhat brutal effect on lazy tracks such as the medley where Mylène rolls all her hits into one, belting out Pourvu qu’elles soient douces, Maman a tort, Libertine and Sans contrefaçon almost in one breath. Stripped of their choreographic value, songs like these are cruelly exposed and cannot even be saved by the efforts of Mylène's exuberant backing duo.
Songs like California, however, gain in status and worth. Abraham Laboriel's eloquent drum-playing comes to the fore on the live version of California, supported by Mylène's bassist and two guitarists who power along with the strength of body-builders or slip into laidback Californian-style lounging. Rêver also comes to the fore on Mylène's new album, transformed from the lonely longings of a teenager into a sort of public anthem, complete with backing vocals and audience participation. And Mylène bravely proves she can perform without a safety-net, going so far as to venture a risky a cappella version of Pas le temps de vivre.
At moments such as these Mylène's new album really comes into its own, revealing a new, and at times totally unexpected, side to France's 'virgin/whore' diva. For, in my humble opinion, the whole point of a singer recording an album "live in concert" is to breathe new life into their material, giving songs an edge they do not possess on the smoothly-produced studio version. Let's face it, one of the finest moments in music history was Jacques Brel singing "une vache à mille temps" instead of "une valse à mille temps" on his legendary live album recorded at the Olympia. The joy of listening to a live album is that "live" opens up the possibility of mishaps, voices trembling with emotion and moments of improvised genius.
In Mylène's case, Mylenium Tour shatters the airbrushed image of the singer's video clips, allowing a hint of rawness and uncontrolled vocals to slip through the net. Mylène invited Yvan Cassar (renowned for his recent stage and studio work with Patricia Kaas, Charles Aznavour and Claude Nougaro) to supervise her live musical arrangements. But curiously enough, Cassar fails to put his distinctive musical mark on proceedings and the arrangements of most of the songs remain fairly close to the original studio arrangements. This leaves Mylène the arduous task of attempting to reproduce the smooth (some would say over-produced) quality of her studio work live on stage. Cassar only succeeds in totally breaking the Mylène mould right at the end of the concert stripping the familiar orchestral arrangements of Dernier sourire down to a simple piano accompaniment.
However, almost against Mylène's iron will, the surface of Cassar's arrangements begins to crack here and there and tiny abrasions appear in La Farmer's own perfection-seeking vocals. Such quirks and imperfections - which pass unnoticed on stage, drowned out beneath layers of dance routines and ritualistic mime - are, without a doubt, the very best moments of Mylenium Tour.
Bertrand Dicale
Mylène Farmer: Mylenium Tour, 2 CD Polydor-Universal.
15/12/2010 -
25/08/2008 -
