Wiki
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Release Date
1 January 1988
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Length
10 tracks
Ainsi Soit Je… (a play on ainsi soit-il, which can mean either "so be it" or "amen") is the second album by Mylène Farmer, released in April 1988.It contains the hit singles "Sans contrefaçon", "Pourvu qu'elles soient douces" and "Sans logique". Generally well-received by critics, it was very successful and remains to date the second best-selling album of the singer.
After the success of the album Cendres de Lune and the hits "Sans contrefaçon" and "Ainsi soit je…", Farmer had no problem releasing a second album that would be well received by the public, enabling her to consolidate her growing popularity, thus preventing her from slipping back into anonymity. The album took from five to six months to be finished. It was recorded at studio Mega, Avenue Maréchal-Maunoury, in Paris (XVIe arrondissement) under the leadership of Thierry Rogen, a renowned sound engineer who had already worked in particular with Michel Sardou.
The cover of the album shows Farmer turned sideways, accompanied by the puppet used in the music video for "Sans contrefaçon". The photographs of the booklet were made by Elsa Trillat.
The album was released in April 1988 and met with great success, both critically and commercially.
Critical reception
The album was generally well-received in the media and remains sometimes considered as "one of the most successful", even the singer's "best album".. When the album was released, the press said : "Mylène shows an imagination and a new maturity in these charming libertine poems and her synthetic hits containing literary references" (20 Ans). This "great" (Gaipied) and "successful" (Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace) album has "an intellectual and musical universe always so creative" (Gaipied). Its songs were described as "powerful, sometimes catchy and often spellbinding compositions" (Paris Nuit), whose texts are "chiseled but perfectly licentious" (France Soir). The "poetic quality of the texts" and "the sense of the melody" (Le Télégramme) were also mentioned. Rock and Folk said this Laurent Boutonnat's production is "impeccable", demonstrating his "undoubted talent". According to Télé Poche, "the time of success has come for Mylène Farmer" with this album. The journalist Caroline Bee said this album is "an ambiguous, bright, romantic and beautifully produced gem".
Some criticisms were also made against Ainsi soit je… For example, according to L'Humanité, this album uses an "old-fashioned stylistic mannerism to reinvent poetry" (L'Humanité). Rock Land qualified this album as a "second collection of bad thoughts with a spectacular flippantly", whose "B-side is flat".
In France, the album debuted at number 8 on April 1988, but it dropped to number 26 five months later. However, thanks to the successful single "Pourvu qu'elles soient douces" (number-one hit on December 1988), the album reached number one for two weeks on December 1988. The album managed to stay for eleven months in the top ten and about one year on the chart. On June 29, 1988, the album was certified Gold disc by the SNEP for 100,000 copies sold, then Platinum disc for 300,000 sales, then Double platinum disc on February 17, 1989 for 600,000 sales, and eventually Diamond disc on November 14, 1989 for a minimum of 1 million copies sold. According to the French show Les Hits de Diamant, broadcast on M6 on October 20, 2007, Ainsi soit je… is the 46th best-selling album of all time in France.
The album was also released in Germany, where it reached number 47.
On March 20, 2005, the album, then reissued in a digipack version, entered the French Top Mid' Price for four weeks, peaking at number 2
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