Bleu Noir (Mylène Farmer)

EN "Bleu Noir" is the eighth studio album by French singer Mylène Farmer, released on December 6, 2010. For some fans of the artist, this album is a return to her roots, attracting favorable comparisons to "Innamoramento" and with the albums before “Anamorphosée”. The idea of the album is to portray the artist as a woman in her prime, confident in her achievements and able to express herself without sacrificing her integrity. The artist wrote all the lyrics of the album, except “Inseparables”, and Moby, Archive and RedOne were responsible for the composition of the tracks.

As the first single of the project, we had the unforgettable “Oui mais... non”, lreleased on October 11, 2010, composed by RedOne and which, by its sound, resembles some of the tracks composed by the producer during that phase, namely for artists such as Lady Gaga, Nicole Scherzinger and Sugababes. In addition, several critics compared the music video of the track to the videos of the songs “Bad Romance” and “Alejandro” of Lady Gaga, ending up being several comparisons with the artist, being a kind of opportunity to integrate into the sonority and visual aspects existing at that time. The second single was the eponymous track, “Bleu Noir”, released on April 18, 2011, well ahead of the release date of the album, but the label argued that this was because there were delays with the preparation of the remixes of the track. The song was written and produced by Moby with lyrics by Mylène, and the music video produced by French filmmaker Olivier Dahan. Although I loved “Slipping Away (Crier la vie)”, a 2005 collaboration between the two artists, I admit that this track fell a little short of expectations, there being better compositions between both on the rest of the album, as is the case of “Toi l'amour”, but I understand it was “relevant" to release the eponymous track of the project. Finally, the third and final single, released on July 4, 2011, was the track “Lonely Lisa”, another composition by RedOne, which, honestly, are for me the best compositions of the album, and there may be more tracks composed by RedOne, since he fit perfectly with the style of the artist. Originally, the character Lonely Lisa was a cartoon created by Farmer, used in 2002 to illustrate the music video for "C'est une belle journée", eventually becoming a trademark of the artist on June 15, 2007, to promote products derived from her short story "Lisa-Loup et le conteur”. In addition to these singles, I think it would also have been a good idea to release the track “Diabolique mon angel”, as a single, another of my favorite tracks and that would give an excellent final single for the project. Proof of this is in the release of the track as a single to promote the live album “Timeless 2013”.

For me, this album has a kind of mystique around it, and the way the artist knew it would be a kind of revolution for her career makes it even more special. It was the first time that the artist left the safety of Laurent Boutonnat's compositions, who would eventually return to her life on the compilation “2001.2011”, with its first single “Du Temps”. And in fact, we see that sometimes we must risk and do something outside of our comfort zone to show our point of view and that we are able to adapt.

“Bleu Noir” was my “debut" album for the artist, and much because of the composer RedOne, who I have accompanied since his rise with Lady Gaga, and from there I accompanied all the projects of the artist. Today, I admit that the album is still in my Top 3, now behind the recent one “Désobéissance” (2018), which is phenomenally well produced, but still special and a turning point for the artist. Many thought that she would not be successful and that it would be a bold move for someone with such a well-established career, but the artist showed what she was capable of and was not afraid to run from her comfort zone, and we must follow this beautiful example of her.

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