''Musique'' is the fourth studio album by the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

band Theatre of Tragedy, released in 2000. The title on the album's cover, , is the pronunciation of the English word "music" transcribed in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...

. ''Musique'' is the album that marked for the band the change from gothic metal with

Early Modern English Early Modern English or Early New English (sometimes abbreviated EModE, EMnE, or ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle E ...

lyrics to a more

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

style, using Modern English. The change in musical direction for Theatre of Tragedy was associated with a change from traditional gothic and supernatural themes to lyrics based on modern life, including technology ("Machine", "Radio"), nightlife ("Image", "The New Man") and streetfighting ("Crash/Concrete"). The song "Commute" has the line "It's more fun to commute" in its lyrics, possibly a reference to Kraftwerk's "It's more fun to compute" from their ''

Computer World ''Computer World'' (german: link=no, Computerwelt) is the eighth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released on 10 May 1981. The album deals with the themes of the rise of computers within society. In keeping with the album's co ...

'' album, which in turn is a reference to "It's more fun to compete" found on old pinball machines. Metal Mind Productions reissued the album after it had been digitally remastered using a 24-bit process on a golden disc. It includes three bonus tracks, "Quirk" (Original Version) - also known as the original version of "Image" - , "Radio" (Unreleased Mix) and "Reverie" (Unreleased Mix). The reissue is limited to 2,000 copies and was released in Europe on 27 July 2009.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Theatre of Tragedy. On the back of the album's casing, "Space Age" is written in

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: "''Космическая эра''"; moreover, the words "''Гагарина, Терешковой, Леонова, Лайки, Белки и Стрелки''" ("''Of Gagarin, Tereshkova, Leonov, of

Laika Laika (russian: link=no, Лайка; – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 space ...

Belka and Strelka Belka (Белка, literally, " squirrel", or alternatively "Whitey") and Strelka (Стрелка, "little arrow") spent a day in space aboard Korabl-Sputnik 2 (Sputnik 5) on 19 August 1960 before safely returning to Earth. They are the first h ...

''") are recited throughout the song. The song "Reverie" begins with loading of a

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program from an audio cassette.

Personnel

Theatre of Tragedy

*Raymond I. Rohonyi - vocals, programming * Liv Kristine Espenæs - vocals * Frank Claussen - guitars * Lorentz Aspen - keyboards * Hein Frode Hansen - drums

Additional musicians

*Erik Andre Rydningen - additional drums *Erik Ljunggren - keyboards and programming

Production

*Erik Ljunggren - producer, engineer *Jon Marius Aareskjold - engineer *Ulf W. Ø. Holand - engineer and mixing

Singles

Two tracks from ''Musique'' were released as singles. *"Image" was released in 2000. This single had the album version of "Machine" plus remixes of "Fragment" (by Element) and "Machine" (by VNV Nation). *''Machine'' was released as an EP in 2001. The EP had the same remixes of "Fragment" and "Machine" which were on the "Image" single. The EP also had the French version of "Image", a remix of "Reverie" and "Radio". The multimedia content on the disc is the video for "Image".

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2000 albums Theatre of Tragedy albums Nuclear Blast albums East West Records albums