Showing posts with label Mylene Farmer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mylene Farmer. Show all posts

Tuesday 25 April 2023

Libertine - Mylene Farmer

'Libertine' was only Mylene Farmer's third single when she originally released it in 1986. The sleeve pictured here is the original one, before the music video became popular and the single was re-released with a photograph from that video on the front sleeve.

The song remains the same: a charming release by a very young Mylene Farmer, some time before she achieved superstar status in France and some other countries. Thirty years after buying the re-release, I finally own the original single now.

My collection: 7" single no. 6952
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Libertine' / 'Greta'

Wednesday 17 July 2019

Des larmes - Mylene Farmer

'Des larmes' ('Tears') is the latest single from French superstar Mylene Farmer. She's just finished a run of concerts in Paris last month. They have been filmed, and a movie of those concerts will appear in French cinemas this November. There are some rumours that these have been her last live concerts ever - but we'll have to wait and see if those rumours are true.

The record company has employed some weird tactics surrounding Mylene's last album 'Désobéissance': four singles were released, but only two of them ('N'oublie pas' and this one) were released on 7" vinyl. The three previous singles came with a flurry of remixes, but this single only comes with an instrumental version of the track. It does not seem to matter to her fans: they will buy whatever is released - just like I do.

My collection: 7" single no. 6141
Found: Amazon France, received July 12, 2019
Cost: 7 euro
Tracks: 'Des larmes (edit radio)' / 'Des larmes (version instrumentale)'

Wednesday 15 August 2018

N'oublie pas - Mylene Farmer & LP

For the first time in a long time, Mylene Farmer has released a single on the 7" vinyl format. I thought the last one was Que mon coeur lâche, but to my dismay I just found out that her 2013 single 'Je te dis tout' was also released on 7" vinyl - as a limited edition picture disc.

Anyway, the new single 'N'oublie pas' was released last Friday on CD-single and 7" vinyl. It is a decent song, and a duet with a certain LP. I'd never heard of her. Full name: Laura Pergolizzi, an American singer from Italian descent with a less than pleasant voice. The single was a no. 1 hit in France upon its release, of course, because Mylene Farmer hasn't stopped being a superstar over there.

My collection: 7" single no. 5915
Found: Fnac.com, received August 14, 2018
Cost: 10 euro
Tracks: 'N'oublie pas' / 'N'oublie pas (instrumental)'

Monday 22 February 2010

Que mon coeur lâche - Mylene Farmer

This is the last single by Mylene Farmer to be released on the 7" vinyl format. It was released to coincide with the release of the album 'Dance remixes', which was a collection of remixes of previous hits by Mylene. The track was originally recorded for a charity compilation album coordinated by Etienne Daho, which would benefit AIDS research. However, it was refused for that album, because the lyric was considered to be too ambiguous and seemed to advocate sexual intercourse without the use of a condom. Mylene did refute these claims, but in the end she recorded an acoustic version of an other track for the charity album, and this track ended up being a single.

The single reached number 9 in the French singles chart and number 8 in the Belgian (Wallonia) singles chart.

My collection: 7" single no. 2629
Found: Record fair, March 16, 1996
Cost: 10 guilders
Tracks: 'Que mon coeur lâche' / 'Que mon coeur lâche'

Friday 12 February 2010

Beyond my control - Mylene Farmer

Mylene Farmer's song 'Beyond my control' was inspired by two characters in the 1782 French novel 'Les liaisons dangereuses'. In the song, the voice heard on the chorus of the song which repeats 'It's beyond my control' is in fact a sample of John Malkovich's voice from the film 'Les liaisons dangereuses' by Stephen Frears. The song deals with self-control, love and death. Farmer tells her own story from the sampled sentence: that of a woman who kills her unfaithful lover after a night of love.

The single reached number 8 in France and number 10 in the French-speaking part of Belgium. The single was also released in the Netherlands, but without any chart success.

My collection: 7" single no. 2220
Found: Record fair, Rotterdam, December 17, 1994
Cost: 3 guilders
Tracks: 'Beyond my control' / 'Beyond my control (Ya ya version)'

Thursday 21 January 2010

Regrets - Mylene Farmer and Jean-Louis Murat

Already in 1989, Mylene Farmer said that she liked Jean-Louis Murat's songwriting. They corresponded for two years until they finally recorded the duet 'Regrets' in 1991. It is a love song in which two lovers are answering tenderly and with melancholy, while they are separated by the death of one of them. Only memories allows the one that is left behind to savour the well-being of the past relationship.

The song was released as the third single from Farmer's third album 'Ainsi soit je...', reaching number 3 in France and number 2 in the French-speaking part of Belgium.

My collection: 7" single no. 2221
Found: Record fair, Rotterdam, December 17, 1994
Cost: 10 guilders
Tracks: 'Regrets' / 'Regrets (Classic bonus beats)'

Sunday 10 January 2010

Je t'aime mélancolie - Mylene Farmer

As with more songs by Mylene Farmer, 'Je t'aime mélancolie' deals with the subject of melancholy and suicide. It's the singer's ironic response to journalists who criticize her because of her image of sad singer and the great success she has with it. Originally, a different track from her album 'L'autre...' was chosen as the second single from the album: 'Pas de doute'. But in the end, this single was released instead.

'Je t'aime mélancolie' reached number 3 in the French singles chart and number 8 in the French-speaking part of Belgium.

My collection: 7" single no. 1956
Found: Record fair, Amsterdam, September 25, 1993
Cost: 5 guilders
Tracks: 'Je t'aime mélancolie (radio mix)' / 'Je t'aime mélancolie (Smooth mix)'

Sunday 6 December 2009

A quoi je sers... - Mylene Farmer

Mylene Farmer released 'A quoi je sers...' ('To whom I serve...') in the summer of 1989, coinciding with her first live tour in France. It was a new song, not available on her debut album which the tour promoted. Both this song and its B-side, 'La veuve noire' were recorded fairly quickly.

As often with Mylene, the lyric of the song is very pessimistic. It's about madness, the desire of suicide and the impression of the futility of the life. According to some observers, the song sums up most of Mylene's work, as it displays the singer's doubts about her usefulness on Earth. The single reached number 16 in the French singles chart.

My collection: 7" single no. 1971
Found: Record fair, Amsterdam, September 25, 1993
Cost: 10 guilders
Tracks: 'A quoi je sers...' / 'La veuve noire'

Monday 16 November 2009

Allan (live) - Mylene Farmer

The live version of 'Allan' was the first single taken from Mylene Farmer's first live album, 'En concert' (1989). The song, which originally appeared on Mylene's second album 'Ainsi soit je..', is a tribute to the American poet Edgar Allan Poe. One verse of the song contains the word 'Ligeia' which refers to the name of Poe's fairy tale published in 1837.

'Allan' was only performed during Mylene's 1989 live tour, and has not appeared on subsequent live concerts since then. This single reached number 32 in the French singles chart.

My collection: 7" single no. 2111
Found: Record fair, June 4, 1994
Cost: 8 guilders
Tracks: 'Allan (live)' / 'Psychiatric'

Sunday 1 November 2009

Sans logique - Mylene Farmer

The lyric of Mylene Farmer's 1989 single 'Sans logique' deals with a kind of schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder, which lives in the protagonist and makes her a killer. Very literary, the song uses obsolete words from the language of the 18th century. The calculating Marquise de Mertreuil (a character in the French epistolary novel 'Les liaisons dangereuses'), as angelic as diabolical according to her own interests, seems to be evoked in the lyrics.

The song actually had to be recorded twice, because the first time, there was a technical problem. The sentence 'this is a blank formatted diskette' which is heard in the introduction of the song refers to this problem and has been maintained to keep the memory of this technical malfunction.
The B-side, 'Dernier sourire' is a previously unreleased song about the death of a relative. 'Sans logique' reached number 10 in the French chart.

My collection: 7" single no. 2219
Found: Record fair, Amsterdam, October 17, 1994
Cost: 10 guilders
Tracks: 'Sans logique' / 'Dernier sourire'

Sunday 25 October 2009

Tristana - Mylene Farmer

The lyric of 'Tristana' was inspired by the film 'Tristana' featuring Catherine Deneuve, which tells the story of a mutilated woman. Originally, the song 'Au bout de la nuit' was scheduled to be released as Mylene Farmer's fifth single, but when the song 'Tristana' was completed, this one was preferred.

The single reached number 7 in France and sold a quarter of a million copies.

My collection: 7" single no. 1921
Found: Record fair, Amsterdam, June 5, 1993
Cost: 5 guilders
Tracks: 'Tristana' / 'Au bout de la nuit'

Wednesday 24 June 2009

Maman a tort - Mylene Farmer

Mylene Farmer was born on September 12, 1961 in Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada, a suburb of Montreal. Her parents moved from France in the late Fifties as Farmer's father pursued an engineering contract on a dam. Her family returned to France when she was eight, settling in the Parisian suburb of Ville d'Avray. In 1984, Farmer met Laurent Boutonnat, a young film student, when she replied to a newspaper ad for an actress for a small film he was working on. Farmer and Boutonnat became friends and forged a creative partnership, writing and producing the music.

Boutonnat and a young songwriter named Jérôme Dahan wrote Farmer's first hit, 'Maman a tort', which was released to much success in March 1984. The video cost the modest sum of 5000 Francs but caused a stir in the music world. Boutonnat cast Farmer as a provocative Lolita figure, an image cultivated in her early days, especially on her debut album 'Cendres de lune', which was released in April 1986.

When I collected Mylene Farmer, starting in the early Nineties, these early singles already cost a fortune. I was quite happy to shell out a much larger sum for this single, bought from a dealer who apparently did not know he could easily fetch four times as much for it.

My collection: 7" single no. 2873
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, 1997
Cost: 20 guilders
Tracks: 'Maman a tort' / 'Maman a tort (instrumental)'

Tuesday 16 June 2009

Libertine - Mylene Farmer

Although the music video of 'Libertine' cannot be found on YouTube, I'm certain there is one. It was one of the videos that made me interested in the Canadian-born singer in the first place. When she had a hit in the Netherlands with 'Désenchantée', I started buying her records and I was glad to find 'Libertine' quite quickly.

I have no record of its chart position of France, but I am pretty sure that this one was her first big hit there. After this, her superstar status continued to rise.

My collection: 7" single no. 1900
Found: Record fair, Amsterdam, May 2, 1993
Cost: 10 guilders
Tracks: 'Libertine' / 'Greta'

Thursday 4 June 2009

Plus grandir (live mix) - Mylene Farmer

'Plus grandir' was originally released as the second single from Mylene Farmer's debut album 'Cendres de lune' (1985). These days, that single costs a small fortune. The song deals with subjects that Farmer was especially fond of at the time : difficulty of leaving childhood, fear of aging, permanent pain of living and death. Laurent Boutonnat wrote the music, which was rather pop for such a sensitive theme. About the lyrics, Farmer said: 'Old age traumatizes me, it's what I wanted to say in the song'.

This live version was released in 1990, and taken from her album 'En concert'. It peaked at number 35 in the French singles chart, but did not chart in other territories.

My collection: 7" single no. 1870
Found: Record fair, Amsterdam, March 27, 1993
Cost: 8 guilders
Tracks: 'Plus grandir (live mix)' / 'Plus grandir (Mum's rap)'

Thursday 16 April 2009

Pourvu qu'elles soient douces - Mylene Farmer

Anyone who watched music video channels regularly in the eighties would get to know Mylene Farmer at some point. Her epic music videos were shown, usually in late night programmes, because of their regular inclusion of violence and nudity. The video for 'Pourvu qu'elles soient douces' was one of them.

Once I'd bought 'Désenchantée', I slowly started to collect more Mylene Farmer singles. I found 'Douces', the Dutch release of the mentioned song quite quickly, because it was re-released after the success of 'Désenchantée'. It didn't reach the Dutch Top 40, though.

Not so much later, I saw the original French single. I had to admit this sleeve was a bit more daring, and since I liked the sleeve and the song, I decided to buy it on the spot. The two singles have the exact same tracklisting. The B-side is a beautiful ballad, which has quite moving lyrics. Or so I think, because my French is not so good.

My collection: 7" single no. 1888 / no. 1922
Found: Record fair, Den Haag, May 2, 1993 / Record fair, Amsterdam, June 5, 1993
Cost: 3 guilders / 8 guilders
Tracks: 'Pourvu qu'elles soient douces' / 'Puisque...'



Wednesday 4 February 2009

Ainsi soit je... - Mylene Farmer

'Ainsi soit je...' was the second single taken from Mylene Farmer's 1988 album of the same name. As for all her songs since the 1987 single 'Tristana', Farmer wrote the lyric. Nevertheless, the first words of the couplets 'bulle de chagrin, boule d'incertitude' were written by Marie, a singer unknown to the general public who died not long before. It was a way for Mylene to pay a tribute to her.

I'd started collecting Mylene Farmer singles only months before I went on a holiday to Vienna, Austria. I was greatly surprised to find an old single in a record shop there - but of course I bought it right away.

My collection: 7" single no. 1934
Found: Marik, Vienna, Austria, 1993
Cost: 59 Austrian Schilling
Tracks: 'Ainsi soit je...' / 'Ainsi soit je... (Lamentations)'
Download: here

Saturday 10 January 2009

Sans contrefaçon - Mylene Farmer

After I'd decided I wanted to hear more from Mylene Farmer, things went pretty fast. Thanks to record fairs, I was able to buy a lot of her early material quickly. 'Sans contrefaçon' was a song I'd seen on television thanks to its accompanying video, and I was happy to find this old single.

It was originally released on October 16, 1987. The song's lyrics seem to be autobiographical. Indeed, in interviews, Farmer often explained that when she was younger, a lot of people thought she was a boy because of her short hair. To play on this doubt, she even confessed to putting a handkerchief in her trousers. Although the song doesn't deal with homosexuality, over years it has become somewhat of a gay anthem.

My collection: 7" single no. 1871
Found: Record fair, Amsterdam, March 27, 1993
Cost: 10 guilders
Tracks: 'Sans contrefaçon' / 'La ronde triste'

Tuesday 9 December 2008

Désenchantée - Mylene Farmer

To people outside of France, the French music scene is somewhat of a mystery. It seems a very isolated country in this respect. Radio stations are obligated to play a percentage of French music, and because of this, French music has become very popular in France. Outside of France, no-one really cares.

This is also how a megastar in France can go almost unnoticed in the rest of Europe. Mylene Farmer is a good example: in France she's compared to people like Madonna in terms of popularity. It was only when she released the single 'Désenchantée' that she reached other European charts. In the Netherlands, she made it to no. 18. And into my record collection. It was actually the start of my Mylene Farmer collection - because she does make damn fine music.

My collection: 7" single no. 1487
Found: Melody Maker, Den Haag, July 3, 1991
Cost: 6 guilders
Tracks: 'Désenchantée' / 'Désenchantée (Chaos mix)'
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