''Je dis aime'' (1999) is the second studio album by French singer-songwriter

Matthieu Chedid Matthieu Chedid (born 21 December 1971) is a French multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. Chedid began his career as a session musician playing both acoustic and electric guitar. In the late 1990s, he rose to fame as a singer-songwriter ...

, in his persona as M, described by reviewers as a "conceptual icon to rival Bowie's

Ziggy Stardust Ziggy Stardust was a glam alter ego of musician David Bowie in the early 1970s. It may refer specifically to: * Ziggy Stardust (character) * ''The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'', often shortened to ''Ziggy Stardust'', a ...

and

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Critical reception

The album was described as managing to take a remarkable variety of musical directions and pull them together into a consistent whole. Another reviewer described the album as sounding like a "French

Lenny Kravitz Leonard Albert Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, and actor. His debut album ''Let Love Rule (Lenny Kravitz album), Let Love Rule'' (1989) was characterized by a blend of Rock music, rock ...

" and noted the "vintage 70s sound and textures".

Wordplay

''Je dis aime'' is a play on words in French as "aime" (love) is pronounced exactly the same as "M". Many of the tracks use similar wordplay as is common in French songs but particularly rich in M's work.

Track listing

# "Monde virtuel" # "Je dis aime" (written by

Andrée Chedid Andrée Chedid () (20 March 1920 – 6 February 2011), born Andrée Saab Khoury, was an Egyptian- French poet and novelist of Lebanese and Syrian descent. She is the recipient of numerous literary awards and was made a Grand Officer of the F ...

, M's grandmother) # "Onde sensuelle" # "À celle qui dure" # "Faut oublier" # "Le Festival de connes" (pokes fun at the pretentiousness of the Cannes film festival changing Cannes to connes – i.e. idiots) # "Le Mec hamac" # "Close to Me" (loosely a cover of the

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but using only one line in English from the original) # "Émilie 1000 Volts" (salsa flavoured track) # "Qui est le plus fragile" # "Le Complexe du corn flakes" # "Au lieu du crime" # "Bonoboo" (written by Andrée Chedid, the song refers to a type of

pygmy chimpanzee The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee (less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee), is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus '' Pan'' (the other being the commo ...

that shares over 98% of its DNA with humans) # "Le Commun des motels" # "Mama Sam" (Mama Sam as compared to Uncle Sam, with puns on words like Nike, called "Nique")

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Je Dis Aime 1999 albums 2000s French-language albums Matthieu Chedid albums Virgin Records albums