RFI Musique - - Album review

Album review

Mylène Farmer

Bleu Noir

Paris

15/12/2010 -

The prestigious line-up on Mylène Farmer’s eighth studio album, Bleu Noir, gives hope for something of a resurgence. Don’t hold your breath.

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Since her major 2005 comeback, the almost fifty-year-old Mylène Farmer has retained her high profile with some whopping shows and excellent new albums. Yet her two Point de suture concerts last year at the Stade de France, which sold out in under two hours, and the album’s colossal sales (700,000 copies on the French market alone) barely disguised a lack of inspiration picked up by critics and many of her fans.

Perhaps as a reaction, Farmer made the step of separating from her longstanding accomplice, Laurent Boutonnat. The author of Maman a tort, who had contributed to every album since 1984, returned to his former film-making career, to be replaced by some prestigious producers and composers, like Moby (with whom she sang a duet in 2006), Red One and Archive.

Clearly, the impressive cast couldn’t pull it off. A listen to Bleu Noir leaves a strong impression of tedium and déjà vu. Despite its snappy dance rhythm, the single Oui mais non sounds like a cheap imitation of one of her former hits. Unsurprisingly, the lyrics, all written by the singer, follow the familiar melancholic tack that has been Farmer’s trademark from the start: “I walk towards the darkness/Towards the sinister horizon…” (Bleu Noir). Yet the electro-pop compositions often lack shape and pizzazz.

The weaknesses of this new album are unlikely to stop it from joining Mylène Farmer’s long list of hits. Bleu Noir is currently breaking all the records for digital album sales in France. Crisis, what crisis?