Lady in Satin

Voilà on y est, voici une de ces œuvres que le grand livre nous présente comme un monument intouchable, un pinacle de l'émotion, un disque-testament. "Lady In Satin" de Billie Holiday.

Sur le papier, tout est là pour me plaire. On me parle d'un album de rupture, de la quintessence de la chanson triste, enregistré par une femme au bout du rouleau, la voix ravagée par une vie d'excès et de chagrins. Une icône brisée qui livre ses dernières forces dans un micro. Putain, ça sonne presque comme du neofolk avant l'heure, un truc qui pourrait faire passer les disques les plus sombres de Nick Cave pour des comptines pour enfants. J'étais prêt, j'étais prêt à pleurer, à me rouler en boule, à sentir le poids de l'humanité m'écraser. J'ai donc appuyé sur "play" et... le choc, le putain de choc total.

Comment dire... Imaginez que vous attendiez un film de David Lynch et que vous vous retrouviez devant un Walt Disney. Car c'est ça, l'album sonne comme la bande originale d'un Disney, et c'est effroyable. On a d'un côté la voix de Billie, et de l'autre, cette production... ces arrangements... ce déluge de violons sirupeux qui semble tout droit sorti de la scène où la mère de Bambi se fait buter. C'est ça, "Lady In Satin" : la mère de Bambi vient de crever, mais les petits oiseaux bleus continuent de chanter et de virevolter autour de son cadavre encore chaud. C'est obscène.

Alors oui, je veux bien entendre l'argument des puristes : "Oui, mais c'est justement ce contraste qui est génial ! La voix brisée, spectrale, qui lutte contre ces arrangements lisses et parfaits, c'est ça le génie !". Mon cul, ouais. Pour moi, ce n'est pas un contraste, c'est un sabotage. C'est comme mettre du papier peint à petites fleurs roses sur les murs d'un squat de punk. Ça n'a aucun sens.

Et la voix de Billie... parlons-en, ce n'est plus la diva au timbre d'or. C'est une femme qui se noie, on l'entend chercher son souffle, sa justesse est précaire, chaque note semble être un effort surhumain. C'est poignant, c'est tragique, c'est la vérité crue d'une vie qui s'éteint. Et qu'est-ce qu'ils ont foutu par-dessus ? Une tonne de guimauve. Un océan de sucre glace. Une avalanche de bons sentiments orchestraux qui cherchent à tout prix à rendre la misère... jolie.

Car il faut être honnête, la production de ce disque est une insulte, chaque fois que la voix de Billie, fatiguée, spectrale, menace de nous raconter quelque chose de vrai, de nous faire ressentir le poids de sa vie de merde, paf ! Un coup de harpe. Vlan ! Une charge de violons qui te donnerait envie de gerber des arcs-en-ciel. On dirait que l'orchestre a pour seule et unique mission d'étouffer la moindre parcelle d'âme qui tente de s'échapper. "Oh là, attention, elle va nous faire chialer ! Vite, balancez la sauce mielleuse, les gars !".

C'est simple, écouter "Lady In Satin", c'est comme assister à une lobotomie en direct dans le château de la Belle au bois dormant. Tout est lisse, propret, dégueulassement inoffensif. C'est de la douleur pour les nuls, de la tragédie pour les gens qui ont peur de se salir les mains. C'est le son parfait pour un dîner chez des gens qui pensent que le jazz, c'est "sympa pour l'ambiance".

Je reviens sur mon image de Disney, ce n'est même plus la mort de la mère de Bambi. C'est Blanche-Neige qui chante "Un jour mon prince viendra" après s'être fait violer par les sept nains. Le décalage est si monstrueux qu'il en devient grotesque.

Alors oui, il y a la voix, ce fantôme qui flotte au-dessus du marécage de guimauve. On l'entend, elle est là, elle se débat. Elle nous rappelle qu'avant ce massacre, il y avait une artiste immense, une femme qui a tout vécu, tout chanté. C'est pour elle, et uniquement pour elle, que ce disque mérite un point. Un point pour le courage. Un point pour la peine. Un point pour la voix et uniquement pour la voix. Pour ce filet sonore brisé, ce râle d'agonie magnifique qui est la seule chose authentique sur cette putain de galette.

Pour le reste... C'est un monument de mauvais goût, un exemple parfait de la façon dont l'industrie musicale peut transformer l'or en merde. Fuyez. Ou alors, écoutez-le pour comprendre ce qu'est un sabotage artistique. C'est une leçon, en quelque sorte, une leçon qui coûte très, très cher à mes oreilles.

Sombre feeling throughout as it was one of her last recordings. Very same-y but very lush and pretty.

Up front, this is not doing a ton for me. It's good, but nothing I haven't really heard before (probably due to Billie's influence, honestly). The singing in particular isn't great, but my understanding is this is one of the last things she recorded and by then her voice had lost a lot of it's punch. Additionally, there's not much daylight between the songs, they all sound very similar.

Interesting that this is the only Billie Holiday record on the list, especially with a bunch being higher rated on Rate Your Music. Wouldn't be opposed to getting an earlier Billie album on the list.

Kinda as a non-sequitur, I recently listened to The Caretaker's dementia project albums (An Empty Bliss Beyond This World and Everywhere at the End of Time), and this album kinda reminds me a little of the ballroom music Kirby sampled for those albums. So much in the same way I call music that sounds like it could be used in the Fallout games or show "Fallout-core" (40s/50s jazz/rock), I'm gonna start calling music that'd work for an Everywhere at the End of Time project "Alzheimers-core", lol.

Edit: Went ahead and listened to Lady Sings the Blues to get a feel for her vocals before her alcoholism and heroin use did a number on her voice (although it sounds like the deterioration had already started by this point). Definitely enjoying this more than Lady in Satin, the vocals are livelier and more consistent, and the backing band is more upbeat and interesting. Not to say Lady in Satin isn't good, just Lady Sings the Blues is more my speed. Lady in Satin feels like a record that requires context to enjoy fully (her health issues) whereas the enjoyment of Lady Sings the Blues is more straightforward.

I wouldn't remove Lady in Satin from the list, it's important, but I would definitely add Lady Sings the Blues to give a fuller picture of her life and career.

I can't listen to her without thinking of David Sedaris. her voice is definitely one of a kind. I want her to get a little more excited? feels very languid. but Not bad.

Sad, sad, sad.

pristojno, na trenutke jako lijepo, ali više-manje svaka pjesma jako nalikuje ostalima. glas mi ne sjeda :/

Good album, good music. I know Billie Holiday has phenomenal vocal skills but I am not a HUGE fan of her voice. I enjoyed the listen though.

Timeless, Gorgeous.

This was nice, chill and enjoyable. Great voice as always.

I wonder if I can break the keyword system.
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I recognise Billie Holiday's talent, and think Strange Fruit is a fantastic song. However I found it hard to connect with this album for some reason. The only songs that stood out for me were I'm a Fool To Want You, You Don't Know What Love Is, and You've Changed. I often find it hard to connect with music pre-1965 or so (except for instrumentals), so it could be another case of that. She had an amazing voice, but I found that the songs were too similar or something.

I didn’t finish this one. It was incredibly boring. What a snooze.

A Beautiful record

This album, to me, is a prime example how a great blues voice can lift the somewhat mediocre orchestrated songs to a higher level.

I HATED this one I'm sorry to say!

The songs were quite nice although a bit boring. But her voice was terrible

And it just kept going on and on. Multiple versions of the same songs - it was too much!

I really was begging for this one to end and I struggled getting through it

1 ⭐️

Amazing voice but all the songs blend and blur together. Without looking at each track go by, I wouldn't be able to tell when one ends and another begins. All too samey

I’m truly just not the biggest vocal Jazz guy, but this is very good. She was excellent.

3.5/5

Ik heb zo vaak over Billie gehoord en zo weinig van haar gehoord. Leuk om het nu geserveerd te krijgen.
Het blijkt een krachtige fijne stem, maar ook heel gedateerd en klein begeleid. Je mist toch joie die bijvoorbeeld een Shirley Bassey later wel toevoegt. Het duurt nu al snel te lang. Dit is zo'n album waarvan af en toe een nummer voorbij moet komen in je playlist.

I like her voice, though I understand that it's not to everybody's taste. The material was a little schmaltzy for me. Overall I preferred the Ella/Gershwin album.

Nice vocal jazz that sometimes reminds me of Disney music.

Her voice doesn't seem to be as smooth as other vocal jazz I have enjoyed, and the songs do start to sound a little samey around halfway through.