Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! (French for "") is the third studio album by German musical project Enigma, released on 22 November 1996 by Virgin Records.

Background and release

The album continued Enigma's trend, giving it a slightly more modern, futuristic sound by combining the elements of Enigma's first album, MCMXC a.D., and their second album, The Cross of Changes. Michael Cretu, producer of the project, considered Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! to be the child of the previous two albums, with the first being the father and the second being the mother, as indicated by the 19‑second track "Third of Its Kind". There are two editions of the packaging; one with standard paper artwork, and another with translucent tray and booklet artwork printed on a heavier plastic.

Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! was nominated for Best New Age Album at the 1998 Grammy Awards, while Johann Zambryski's album art design earned him a nomination for Best Recording Package.

The intro track begins with a sample of mission control contacting the Discovery from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The intro, including the famed "Enigma horn", is played backwards for the closing track, "Odyssey of the Mind". The track "T.N.T. for the Brain" contains samples taken from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. The samples are just audible, underlying the main music. They can be most clearly heard at the start and the end of the track, but are just noticeable throughout. The track "Prism of Life" appears at the end credit of the 2023 documentary "Close Encounters of The Fifth Kind".

Critical reception

Rick Anderson of AllMusic stated that "[Michael Cretu, as Enigma] doesn't seem to have done much to expand upon his original ideas", and despite reserving praise for the "darkly lovely" "The Child in Us", dismissed most of the album as "twaddle" and "disappointing".

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!

  • Dr. Bhagya Murthy – Sanskrit chant
  • Sandra Cretu – female voices
  • Louisa Stanley – female voices
  • Peter Cornelius – guitars on "The Child In Us"
  • Michael Cretu – vocals, instruments, production, engineering
  • Johann Zambryski – art direction, design
  • Volker Sträter – illustrations

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ Weekly chart performance for Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!

! scope="col"| Chart (1996–1997)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

! scope="row"| Danish Albums (Hitlisten)

| 6

|-

|-

! scope="row"| European Albums (Music & Media)

| 3

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

! scope="row"| Portuguese Albums (AFP)

| 18

|-

|-

|-

|-

! scope="row"| US Billboard 200

| 25

|}

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ 1996 year-end chart performance for Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!

! scope="col"| Chart (1996)

! scope="col"| Position

|-

! scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)

| 99

|-

! scope="row"| Swedish Albums & Compilations (Sverigetopplistan)

| 62

|-

! scope="row"| UK Albums (OCC)

| 84

|}

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ 1997 year-end chart performance for Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!

! scope="col"| Chart (1997)

! scope="col"| Position

|-

! scope="row"| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)

| 46

|-

! scope="row"| European Albums (Music & Media)

| 67

|-

! scope="row"| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)

| 86

|-

! scope="row"| US Billboard 200

| 91

|}

Certifications

References

  • Details about the album
  • Lakshmi Ashtothara by Dr Bhagya Murthy from the Singapore National Library Archives