After “Les mots” in 2001 and “2001-2011”, Mylène Farmer releases his third compilation.
Available as a CD or vinyl box set, it contains 52 songs. A mix of live concert songs (16 tracks) or studio songs.
In ten days, “Histoires de” was certified gold record for 50,000 sales, then within two months platinum record for 100,000 sales (in France).
Then, Mylène followed a string of successes, her first album, Cendres de lune, was released in 1986 and the famous “Ainsi soit je…”, Mylène Farmer’s second studio album, released in April 1988. Then there will be :
L’Autre… (1991), Anamorphosée (1995), Innamoramento (1999), Avant que l’ombre… (2005), Point de suture (2008),
Bleu noir (2010), Monkey Me(2012), Interstellaires (2015), Désobéissance (2018).
With 11 studio albums, 7 live albums, 5 compilation albums or remixes, Mylène Farmer has sold more than 16 million albums.
Technical:
- Mastered At La Villa by André Perriat, Jeremy Henry
This album includes 52 tracks :
- Libertine (live Lyon 2009)
- Sans logique (live 2019)
- Sans contrefaçon (live Lyon 2009)
- Ainsi soit je (live Lyon 2009)
- Pourvu qu’elles soient douces (live 2019)
- Je t’aime mélancolie (live Lyon 2013)
- Regrets (live Paris 1999)
- Désenchantée (live Lyon 2013)
- Beyond My Control (live Paris 1999)
- XXL (live Paris 2006)
- California (live Paris 2006)
- Rêver (live Lyon 2009)
- Comme j’ai mal (live Lyon 2013)
- L’Instant X (live Paris 2009)
- Mad World (Timeless 2013 live)
- Diabolique mon ange (Timeless 2013 live)
- Innamoramento
- L’âme-stram-gram
- Souviens-toi Du Jour
- Optimistique-moi
- Je te rends ton amour
- C’est une belle journée
- Les Mots
- Fuck Them All
- L’amour n’est rien…
- Avant que l’ombre…
- Q.I.
- Redonne-moi
- Dégénération (radio edit)
- C’est dans l’air (radio edit)
- Appelle mon numéro
- Si j’avais au moins…
- Oui mais… non
- Bleu noir
- M’effondre
- Lonely Lisa
- Du temps
- à force de…
- Monkey Me
- à l’ombre
- Je te dis tout
- Interstellaires
- Stolen Car
- City of Love
- Un jour ou l’autre
- Rolling Stone
- N’oublie pas
- Désobéissance
- Sentimentale
- Des larmes
- Histoires de fesses
- L’âme dans l’eau
We will review 3 editions (Vinyl 2021, CD 2020, Streaming) of this album.
First we will analyze each edition in detail (technical and qualitative analysis) then we will compare the successive editions with their dynamics and assign a final score and you will be able to listen some samples.
Summary
Review of the editions:
Ed1 : Vinyl Stuffed Monkey – 19439837921 (2021)
Ed2 : CD Stuffed Monkey – 19439837432 (2020)
Ed3 : Streaming Amazon HD Album, Stereo (2020)
Ed1 : Vinyl Stuffed Monkey – 19439837921 (2021)
Presentation
It’s a superb box set with 6 vinyl records and a 24-page booklet. Everything is very well finished with superb graphics.
It’s a deluxe collector’s item.
Label | Stuffed Monkey |
Reference | 19439837432 |
Format (speed) | 6 x vinyl |
Type | Box set Best Of Studio & Live, Edition collector |
Master | Digital |
Mastering/Pressing | Mastered At La Villa by André Perriat, Jeremy Henry |
Original recording | Digital (Analogic) |
State | EU |
Year original | 2020 |
Year production | 2021 |
Waveform
The 3 waveforms represent :
- the Side A, B, C and D of the album
- the Side E, F, G and H of the album
- the Side I, J, K and L of the album
The graph clearly shows the differences in levels and thus in dynamics for this track. You can clearly see the differences in volume and musical instruments impact.



Spectrum
The Spectrum allows to check the tonal balance of the music (balance between treble, medium and bass sounds) and to detect process that may have been carried out during the recording, the mixing, mastering or manufacturing phases. It is also possible to detect frequency interference issues.
The curve represents the average frequency distribution over the track 4 Ainsi soit je (live Lyon 2009), with a DR12 for Vinyl and CD. Interesting characteristics on this curve are:
1. The spectrum between the two versions is similar, except above 10 kHz, where the vinyl has more treble than the CD (in the green zone).
2. It is a little collapse in the signal level after 22 kHz (Yellow), normal for a master in 44.1 kHz.

Spectrogram
Spectrogram is another representation of frequency versus time of a track. For each channel (right and left), horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis represents frequency. The amplitude is represented by the intensity (brightness) of the color of each point in the image.
The 3 sprectrogram represent :
- the Side A, B, C and D of the album
- the Side E, F, G and H of the album
- the Side I, J, K and L of the album
The yellow zones represent the collapse at 22 kHz (in Yellow in the previous graph).



Ed2 : CD Stuffed Monkey – 19439837432 (2020)
Presentation
It’s a superb box set with 3 CD is included in a super book. Everything is very well finished with superb graphics.
It’s a deluxe CD collector’s item.
Label | Stuffed Monkey |
Reference | 19439837432 |
Format (speed) | 3 × CD, 16/44.1 |
Type | Box set Best Of Studio & Live, Edition collector |
Master | Digital |
Mastering/Pressing | Mastered At La Villa by André Perriat, Jeremy Henry |
Original recording | Digital (Analogic) |
State | EU |
Year original | 2020 |
Year production | 2020 |
Waveform
The 3 waveforms represent :
- the CD 1 of the album
- the CD 2 of the album
- the CD 3 of the album
You can see in red that the music is compressed with an almost totally flat max level for all the tracks. Except for 3 tracks on CD 1.
The numbers 1, 2 and 3 of CD 1 correspond to tracks “Ainsi soit je (live Lyon 2009)”, “Rêver (live Lyon 2009)” and “Mad World” with DR12, DR13 and DR15. It is a regret that the whole album is not treated with the same dynamic way as these three tracks.



Spectrum
The Spectrum allows to check the tonal balance of the music (balance between treble, medium and bass sounds) and to detect process that may have been carried out during the recording, the mixing, mastering or manufacturing phases. It is also possible to detect frequency interference issues.
The curve represents the average frequency distribution over the track 8 Désenchantée (live Lyon 2013), with a DR11 for Vinyl and DR7 for CD. Interesting characteristics on this curve are:
- The spectrum between the two versions is similar, except above 10 kHz, where the vinyl has more treble than the CD (in the green zone).
- It is a collapse in the signal level after 22 kHz (Yellow), normal for a CD in 44.1 kHz.
- In blue, the bass sound level is a little louder on the CD.

Spectrogram
Spectrogram is another representation of frequency versus time of a track. For each channel (right and left), horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis represents frequency. The amplitude is represented by the intensity (brightness) of the color of each point in the image.
The 3 sprectrogram represent :
- the CD 1 of the album
- the CD 2 of the album
- the CD 3 of the album
The yellow zones represent the normal collapse at 22 kHz (in Yellow in the previous graph) of the CD.The black part shows no signal above 22kHz.



Ed3 : Streaming Amazon HD Album, Stereo (2020)
Presentation

No box set in streaming version.
Label | Stuffed Monkey |
Reference | Streaming Amazon Music HD |
Format (speed) | 16/44.1, and 24/44.1(Track 48,49,50,52), 24/48(Track 46), 24/96kHz(Track 2,5,47,51) |
Type | Streaming |
Master | Digital 16/44.1kHz, and 24/44.1, 24/48, 24/96kHz for some titles |
Mastering/Pressing | Mastered At La Villa by André Perriat, Jeremy Henry |
Original recording | Digital (Analogic) |
State | EU |
Year original | 2020 |
Year production | 2020 |
Waveform
The 3 waveforms represent :
- cut according to CD1 of the album
- cut according to CD 2 of the album
- cut according to CD 3 of the album
Like the CD, you can see in red that the music is compressed with an almost totally flat max level for all the tracks. Except for 3 tracks on eq CD 1.
The numbers 1, 2 and 3 of CD 1 correspond to tracks “Ainsi soit je (live Lyon 2009)”, “Rêver (live Lyon 2009)” and “Mad World” with DR12, DR13 and DR15. It is a regret that the whole album is not treated with the same dynamic way as these three tracks.



Spectrum
The Spectrum allows to check the tonal balance of the music (balance between treble, medium and bass sounds) and to detect process that may have been carried out during the recording, the mixing, mastering or manufacturing phases. It is also possible to detect frequency interference issues.
The curve represents the average frequency distribution over the track 8 Désenchantée (live Lyon 2013). Interesting characteristic on this curve is that the spectrum between the two versions is identical.

Spectrogram
Spectrogram is another representation of frequency versus time of a track. For each channel (right and left), horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis represents frequency. The amplitude is represented by the intensity (brightness) of the color of each point in the image.
The 3 sprectrogram represent :
- cut according to CD1 of the album
- cut according to CD 2 of the album
- cut according to CD 3 of the album
The black part shows no signal above 22kHz (track in 44.1 kHz sampling), with 2 exeptions Track 2 “Sans logique (live 2019)” and 5 “Pourvu qu’elles soient douces (live 2019)” in 24/96 Khz (marked Ultra HD at Amazon Music).


The black part shows no signal above 22kHz (track in 44.1 kHz sampling), with 2 exeptions Track 46 “Rolling Stone” (24/48), Track 47 “N’oublie pas” (24/96), Track 48 “Désobéissance” (24/44.1), Track 49 “Sentimentale” (24/44.1), Track 50 “Des larmes” (24/44.1), Track 51 “Histoires de fesses” (24/96), and “L’Âme dans l’eau” Track 52 (24/44.1) marked Ultra HD at Amazon Music.

Dynamic
Dynamic represents the ability to reproduce a wide range of sounds from the softest to the loudest. For the 3 editions Dynamic Range (DR) is as follow:
ED1 Vinyl | Ed2 CD | Ed3 Streaming Amazon | |
DR Global | DR11 | DR7 | DR7 |
DR min | DR9 | DR4 | DR4 |
DR max | DR15 | DR15 | DR15 |
Libertine (live Lyon 2009) | DR12 | DR7 | DR7 |
Sans logique (live 2019) | DR13 | DR7 | DR7 |
Sans contrefaçon (live Lyon 2009) | DR12 | DR7 | DR7 |
Ainsi soit je (live Lyon 2009) | DR12 | DR12 | DR12 |
Pourvu qu’elles soient douces (live 2019) | DR13 | DR7 | DR5 |
Je t’aime mélancolie (live Lyon 2013) | DR14 | DR8 | DR8 |
Regrets (live Paris 1999) | DR11 | DR7 | DR7 |
Désenchantée (live Lyon 2013) | DR11 | DR7 | DR7 |
Beyond My Control (live Paris 1999) | DR12 | DR7 | DR8 |
XXL (live Paris 2006) | DR11 | DR7 | DR7 |
California (live Paris 2006) | DR12 | DR7 | DR7 |
Rêver (live Lyon 2009) | DR13 | DR13 | DR13 |
Comme j’ai mal (live Lyon 2013) | DR12 | DR7 | DR7 |
L’Instant X (live Paris 2009) | DR12 | DR7 | DR7 |
Mad World | DR15 | DR15 | DR15 |
Diabolique mon ange (Timeless 2013 live) | DR13 | DR8 | DR8 |
Innamoramento | DR11 | DR7 | DR7 |
L’âme-stram-gram | DR11 | DR7 | DR7 |
Souviens-toi Du Jour | DR12 | DR8 | DR8 |
Optimistique-moi | DR11 | DR8 | DR8 |
Je te rends ton amour | DR10 | DR7 | DR7 |
C’est une belle journée | DR11 | DR6 | DR7 |
Les Mots | DR11 | DR8 | DR8 |
Fuck Them All | DR11 | DR6 | DR7 |
L’amour n’est rien… | DR11 | DR6 | DR7 |
Avant que l’ombre… | DR11 | DR6 | DR7 |
Q.I. | DR10 | DR5 | DR7 |
Redonne-moi | DR10 | DR7 | DR8 |
Dégénération (radio edit) | DR11 | DR4 | DR4 |
C’est dans l’air (radio edit) | DR10 | DR5 | DR6 |
Appelle mon numéro | DR12 | DR7 | DR7 |
Si j’avais au moins… | DR10 | DR6 | DR6 |
Oui mais… non | DR11 | DR6 | DR6 |
Bleu noir | DR10 | DR5 | DR5 |
M’effondre | DR11 | DR5 | DR5 |
Lonely Lisa | DR11 | DR5 | DR5 |
Du temps | DR10 | DR5 | DR6 |
à force de… | DR10 | DR5 | DR5 |
Monkey Me | DR11 | DR5 | DR5 |
à l’ombre | DR9 | DR5 | DR5 |
Je te dis tout | DR10 | DR5 | DR5 |
Interstellaires | DR11 | DR6 | DR6 |
Stolen Car | DR10 | DR5 | DR6 |
City of Love | DR11 | DR6 | DR6 |
Un jour ou l’autre | DR11 | DR7 | DR7 |
Rolling Stone | DR11 | DR6 | DR6 |
N’oublie pas | DR9 | DR4 | DR4 |
Désobéissance | DR10 | DR5 | DR5 |
Sentimentale | DR10 | DR4 | DR4 |
Des larmes | DR10 | DR6 | DR6 |
Histoires de fesses | DR10 | DR5 | DR5 |
L’âme dans l’eau | DR10 | DR5 | DR5 |
The DRs vary globally from 9 to 15 for the vinyl with a average of 11, which is a good dynamic.
For the CD and streaming Amazon, the DRs vary globally from 4 to 8 for 49 tracks, and 3 exceptions with 12,13,15. the average is 7, which corresponds to a compressed album. It is in the current tendency unfortunately.
As it is a compilation, we can compare the DR to the original albums (in CD Format). Here are a few examples:
- Sans contrefaçon in « No 5 on Tour » DR8 (DR7 in Histoires de)
- Ainsi soit je… in « No 5 on Tour » DR13 (DR12 in Histoires de)
- Désenchantée in « Timeless 2013 » DR7 (DR7 in Histoires de)
- L’ Ame-Stram-Gram in “Innamoramento” DR7 (DR7 in Histoires de)
- Oui Mais… in « Bleu Noir » DR6 (DR6 in Histoires de)
The remastering is very similar or identical to the original DR in Vinyl. Most of the albums were already compressed.
A low DR deviation (1 or 2) may be due to compression or a different treble level. Indeed, an increase in trebles has the effect of accentuating the perception of dynamics during listening but also during measuring.
As a reminder, the scale goes from 0 to more 20, but the dynamics are considered good from 12, quite good between 10 and 11, and deteriorate below 10.
Notation/Rating/Samples:
The streaming versions may evolve over time, those presented here correspond to the version tested at the date of publication, or update of the review.
Ed1 : Vinyl Stuffed Monkey – 19439837921 (2021)
It’s a very nice box with 6 vinyls, it’s a collector’s item for Mylène Farmer’s fans. The manufacturing is of great quality.
Vinyls are a very nice pressing, the sound is very dynamic with low surface noise.
The sound rendering is more natural than the cd, but without the “louder” effect of compression.
The sound balance is similar, but with a little more detail at the top of the spectrum.
- Ratting :
- Dynamic: ●●●oo (3.5/5)
- Spectrum: ●●●●o (4/5)
- Surface noise: ●●●●o (4/5)
- Restitution: ●●●●o (4/5)
- Samples :
- Sample 1 “Mad World” is an example of the maximum DR15 in the Vinyl
- Sample 2 “Sentimentale” is an example DR10 in the Vinyl, to compare to the DR4 of the CD.
Ed2 : CD Stuffed Monkey – 19439837432 (2020)
It is also a very nice boxed book, very well finished with 3 cd.
The CD is in the current standards of the “pop” music with a strong compression (except for 3 titles).
This gives more power to the sound, but loses all the finesse.
This was interesting for listening to headphones in transport, but now, with the noise reduction headphones that have become affordable, it is not necessary to compress so loudly.
- Rating :
- Dynamic: ●●ooo (2/5)
- Spectrum: ●●●●o (4/5)
- Restitution: ●●●oo (3/5)
- Samples :
- Sample 1 “Mad World” is an example of the maximum DR15 in the CD
- Sample 2 “Sentimentale” is an example of the lower DR4 in the CD
Ed3 : Streaming Amazon HD Album, Stereo (2020)
In this version, there is not a superb box set but we have the album without compression. The music is more airy, more natural with more dynamics and nuances than on the CD.
It is a regret that the CD box set is not used the same master to propose a better musical rendering.Compared to vinyl, we find the same precision with a tighter bass in digital.
- Rating :
- Dynamic: ●●ooo (2/5)
- Spectrum: ●●●●o (4/5)
- Restitution: ●●●oo (3/5)
- Samples :
- Sample 1 “Mad World” is an example of the maximum DR15 (Streaming)
- Sample 2 “Sentimentale” is an example of the lower DR9 (Streaming)
*The level has been adjusted to have the same RMS level for an easier comparison.
The choice between the 3 editions is rather in favor of the vinyl box which alone allows to have the box with an uncompressed sound.
For the digital version, the streaming version is better than the CD. We can only regret that the loudness continues on the CD, especially with such a beautiful CD box.
Updated the 06/14/2021 with Streaming Amazon
Detail of the ratings :
- Dynamic :
- Significant dynamic compression, DR less than 7
- Compression of the present dynamics, DR between 7 and 9.
- Correct piece DR >=10
- No dynamic compression (DR >12), dynamic rendering
- No dynamic compression, high DR and very dynamic sound rendering
- Spectrum :
- Spectrum cut and less than 15 khz
- Spectrum cut at 15 khz
- Spectrum not conforming to the original and cut (not HD) or original but limited bandwidth (but less than 20 kHz)
- Spectrum conforming to the original (but not HD)
- Spectrum conforming to the original with HD resolution (higher than 24kHz)
- Surface noise (only for vinyl):
- Continuous audible noise
- Audible surface noise except on passages with a high level of noise
- Reduced surface noise, barely audible on low level crossings
- Low surface noise, very good quality
- Very low surface noise, no defects, almost inaudible on the quiet passages (exceptional disc)
- Restitution :
- Low quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
- Average quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
- Quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Good record.
- High quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Very high level disc.
- Maximum quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Exceptional disc.
One thought on “Mylène Farmer – Histoires de (Box collector 6 Vinyls , Box collector 3 CDs, Streaming Amazon)”