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Metamorphoses
Studio album
Publication	2000
Recording	1999
Length	60:01
Producer	Jean Michel Jarre
Label	Disques Dreyfus
Notes: A spectacular turnaround in Jarre’s music: massively including vocals in his musical pieces

This album from Jarre is a departure from all that he has done before. Jarre celebrates woman’s voice in his first ever music with lyrics. The result surprises much the fans, who feel like they don’t recognize Jarre anymore. Neverless, the quality of the album is high-class and its sharp beats are issued from the collaboration with a french DJ, Joachim Garraud. This album is the first one Jarre made on Protools, the digital audio workstation.

Metamorphoses is the occasion for Jarre to work with Laurie Anderson again (the female singer of the Zoolook album), on a very melancholic track calles “Je me souviens”.

On “C’est la vie”, Jarre jams with arabic singer Natacha Atlas. It’s the first single of the album. Jarre has tough time to get his record aired on radio stations since it is not sung totally on French, and can’t fit in french quotas of music. Next single is “Tout est bleu”, but the song is not as good as Jarre thought it could be, and the sells are not satisfying. It will be the last major album (the Sessions 2000 was published without Jarre’s consent) of Jarre with Francis Dreyfus Records.

Sharon Corr, the violnist of the Corrs, makes an appearance on “Rendez-vous à Paris”. Other female vocalist include Veronique Bossa (“Millions of Stars”, “Give Me a Sign”) Dierdre Dubois (“Miss Moon”), Lisa Jacobs (“Millions of Stars”), Ozlem Cetin (“Silhouette”).

The great tracks, I think, featured on Metamorphoses are “Millions of stars”, “Miss Moon” and, to lesser extent, “Gloria, Lonely Boy”. All of these are slow-paced ones, not that the dynamic parts of the albums ruin it (Hey Gagarin and Bells are both skilled dance tunes), but the sound design of the three ones are jaw-dropping. Weeker tracks, to my opinion, are “Love love love”, “Give me a sign” and “Silhouette”.

Jarre had use great material from this album as a backing inspiration for his concert in Cairo, Egypt, in front of the Pyramids.

1. “Je me souviens” – 4:25
2. “C’est la vie” – 7:11
3. “Rendez-vous à Paris” – 4:19
4. “Hey Gagarin” – 6:20
5. “Millions of Stars” – 5:41
6. “Tout est bleu” – 6:01
7. “Love Love Love” – 4:26
8. “Bells” – 3:49
9. “Miss Moon” – 6:08
10. “Give Me a Sign” – 3:49
11. “Gloria, Lonely Boy” – 5:31
12. “Silhouette” – 2:29

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