Stromae (Paul Van Haver) is a Belgian musician, most notably known for songs like Papaoutai, Formidable, and even his song Alors on Danse (which became a popular audio on tiktok in the past few months). He released the song “Tous Les Memes” in 2013, in the album “Racine Carrée”, and this is the song I will be focusing on in this post.
Tous Les Memes displays a range of effects that deserve to be broken down. But before that, it is important to understand the context and message of the song (to better understand why certain audio effects were used). The song itself explores caricatures of monogamous relationship dynamics/ ideals/ issues regarding stereotypically feminine and masculine roles. It flows like a broken conversation, more so an argument, in which either side only sees the faults of the other. It steps around the idea of love as ‘un connard et une conasse’–meaning love involves two assholes. This draws on the name of the song itself, “Tous Les Memes”, meaning “They are all the same”. It posits that often in relationships, each person will proclaim themselves as the one who is constantly being faulted, under appreciated or wronged, when actually they’re both quite the same, but blinded by their point of view.
The song opens with a grainy audio of old fashioned, big band-esque trumpet chords that sound like they’re being played over a record player. At the end of the riff, the sound opens up and clarifies in a way that sounds like the listener is being shifted back into the modern moment, in which Stromae’s voice cuts in and begins singing. These first few seconds are crucial for many reasons, and foreshadow the progression of the song that is about to occur. The old-fashioned opening implies that perhaps the arguments used between the partners in the song are outdated and overdone, but when the intro clarifies its distortion & brings the listener to the present moment, Stromae may also be implying that, like the song title itself, we are hardly different or beyond the outdated opinions of the past.
The first verse follows the complaints of the first person, saying “Vous les hommes êtes tous les mêmes/ Macho mais cheap/Bande de mauviettes infidèles/Si prévisibles, non je ne suis pas certaine, que tu m’mérites” (All you men are the same, macho but cheap. Whole lot of unfaithful fools, so predictable. You don’t even deserve me.) The audio bends and distorts the lyrics to be presented in a whiny tone, splicing some words into stutters. It’s like the argument of this individual is tired and overused–threatening the other that they’re too good and that they can leave, all the while both people know nothing will change. The next verse is the rebuttal of the man, who simply rolls his eyes and tells her to “rendez-vous sûrement aux prochaines règles” (essentially saying he needs to save the date for when her period starts, because he devalues the course of their argument to hormonal imbalances).
The song pumps on continually in this fashion, with both sides clearly not on the same page with what they want from the relationship, and blaming the other person for not being that. The background music is very repetitive, almost mimicking the arguments and how they’re just walking in circles around their issues. Towards the end, there’s a musical interlude that leads into the chanting repetition of “tous les memes”, seemingly shouted by both people towards each other (insinuating “all women are the same/ all men are the same and that’s why you’re so inherently problematic/ will never be good enough”). However, in shouting this to each other, they entirely miss the irony that in this argument, they are no different or better than one another. They are simply ‘un connard et une conasse’: two assholes.
The ending feels as though it could loop seamlessly to the beginning of the song, like the endless cycle of toxic arguments that it represents. Another effect that I enjoyed about this song is how the music takes on a relatively positive and poppy tone, despite being about dysfunctional and toxic relationship dynamics. I think this aspect is symbolic of how broken relationships like this very often exist behind a guise of happiness and perfection.