Why "L'Emprise" is one of Mylène Farmer's best albums

• L'Emprise

  , Mylène Farmer's new album was released on Friday November 25, 2022. The artist has worked with Woodkid, but also Moby, AaRON and the group Archive.

• “Given its title, there is necessarily something violent in it, but it is not difficult to access.

  It's the Mylène Farmer we know, with her demons and her lights.

  I think anyone who likes variety can relate to it, ”says

  20 Minutes

  Ludovic Huvier, producer of the

  Mylène Farmer podcast, Histoires de…

• “Mylène Farmer is no longer looking for the radio hit, she wants to express herself, she is free, underlines Sylvain Paturel-Voyer.

  Disobedience

  [his previous studio album, released in 2018] marked the end of a cycle.

  There we feel a desire to create, to surprise.

  »

The cover of

must not mislead the listener.

If it reveals an "other" Mylène, half-alien, half-creature, floating (or prostrate) in a fetal position on a black background which isolates her, the album, released this Friday, is pure Farmer.

"It's been at least ten years since one of his records had been to this extent, underlines Sylvain Paturel-Voyer, creator of the podcast

dedicated to the artist.

There are incredible ballads [

,

…] as she knew how to do them before, poetic texts, more raw.

We are in his world.

She manages to keep us at home while wanting to take us elsewhere.

»

“On first listen, I didn't find that one track stood out more than another.

As it has substance, relief, textures, surface, you have to listen to it several times, recommends Ludovic Huvier, producer of the podcast.

I was struck by the beauty of the sound, there are a lot of strings, a predominance of pieces with symphonic orchestration.

It's a very successful album.

»

He continues: “Given its title, there is necessarily something violent in it, but it is not difficult to access.

It's the Mylène Farmer we know, with her demons and her lights.

I think anyone who likes variety can relate to it.

»

A successful collaboration with Woodkid

The critical reception is warm.

salutes the voice "disarming (...), of an admirable clarity, surprising in certain bass" of the singer.

Didier Varrod, musical director of the antennas of Radio France considers that it is about “his best album since

[released in 1995]”.

Even

, usually unfriendly with Mylène Farmer, saves its gall with formulations that seem to be both compliment and reproach.

The daily describes

as a "morbid new-age pop dance rock blockbuster whose peaks are inevitably the highest perched, those devoid of rhythms, finished in the laboratory".

However, this opus was not self-evident.

The star was out of inspiration, "unable to write a single word", she confided in the columns of the

on Sunday .

She was thinking of "stopping everything".

And then, Woodkid offered him his services.

“I fantasized about this collaboration for a long time.

The result is beyond what I expected.

He managed to surprise me,” rejoices Sylvain Paturel-Voyer.

The musician, who composed seven of the twelve tracks on the album - which has a total of fourteen if we include two piano-voice versions -, remains faithful to his lyrical swerves without ever stifling the farmer's touch.

“It's a meeting between two identities that have style.

Whatever the generation that separates them [he is 39 years old, she is 61], they have managed to find each other, says Ludovic Huvier.

Thanks to the symphonic orchestrations he brought, she managed to do something modern and timeless.

»

“They made him a box”

For this disc, Mylène Farmer also worked again with the Archive group, which produced three

titles in 2010, and with Moby, who has been used to collaborating since 2006 with the one who has become her friend.

The American signs the melodies of the only two

titles of

,

and

(probably

hit of the disc).

The group AaRon also brought her the song

on a set , which she fell in love with - it is extremely rare that she interprets a text of which she was not the author.

“This piece is a little gem, applauds the creator of

What's remarkable is that she worked with four very different people and it's a crazy match.

They made him a box.

»

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"It's not the first time that Mylène Farmer has worked on an album without Laurent Boutonnat [who for thirty years was the only composer of his melodies] but, unlike the previous ones, there is something very homogeneous here, which is worthy of an album with a single producer at the helm”, supports Ludovic Huvier.

The phenomenon of influence

The coherence of the disc is also thematic.

It's about new beginnings, making a clean sweep, rebuilding.

The title of the album,

, is touched upon in three of the tracks: the eponymous song,

and

.

For many fans, Mylène Farmer evokes her personal experience.

While he agrees that this is the “most intimate” album in his discography, Sylvain Paturel-Voyer prefers not to risk the game of interpretations.

"Does she talk about what she's been through?"

Or what relatives have experienced and which she has witnessed?

I don't know, he sweeps.

In her interview with

, she said "Who hasn't crossed paths with a so-called narcissistic perverse person?"

[she also says: "The influence is a subject that overwhelms me and makes me angry"]… For my part, I had

two people who have been subjected to the influence in their relationships listen to

They were flabbergasted that she fell so accurately.

» Chance of the calendar or deliberate choice?

It should also be noted that the disc is released on November 25, the world day for the fight against violence against women.

“She is no longer looking for the radio tube, she is free”

Does Control

represent taking a risk?

“No, says the creator of the podcast.

She can do anything.

She is no longer looking for the radio tube, she wants to express herself, she is free.

Only she can afford a comeback like she did, by releasing a single on the radio, dropping a clip and… nothing else.

We often talk about his discretion and his shyness but we should insist on his freedom.

»

And to add: “Mylène Farmer is perhaps at the start of something else.

[his previous studio album, in 2018] marked the end of a cycle.

There we feel a desire to create, to surprise.

»

Also, if the star baptized

(“Never again”) her next stadium tour – which she will launch on June 3 in Lille –, it could well be that

is a musically ajar door on an encore.

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