Persistent rumours continued to circulate including the possibility of duets with artists such as Benjamin Biolay, Diam's and Lara Fabian.

[1] In December 2004,[2] Farmer held a major press conference with longtime collaborator Laurent Boutonnat in which she confirmed the upcoming release of the album, including the title, and announced a series of concerts to coincide at Paris Bercy.

[3] The digipack version, first limited to 2,000 units, is composed of the CD and a DVD containing the making-of of the music video for "Fuck Them All" with commentaries by director Augustin Villaronga.

The album was produced in a triptych version, with a central section that unfolds itself in the shape of a cross to discover the booklet in which the order of the lyrics is not the same as that of the songs.

[5] Isserman also made the cover's photo, on which Farmer appears lengthened, "asleep as Sleeping Beauty on an ochre and shades of red background".

[6] On 28 March, a competition organized by the NRJ radio allowed the winners to listen to the album in its entirety alongside Pascal Nègre and Mylène Farmer.

[7] The Virgin megastore and the Fnac ot[clarification needed] the Champs Elysées[8] also organized a special deal with album's sales after midnight.

[12][better source needed] Ouest France stated that the album is "a continuation of the singer's discography", but with a "certain calm in the prose" and a "majority of ballads".

He said that among the subjects tackled are religion, literature, sexuality, a hope for a better life, a happy love, revolt, dream and self-mockery.

Although he deemed the album "consistent and uniform", he added that it is confusing due to the "particularly abstruse" lyrics, including many puns and literary references unknown to the general public.

[6] Some critics thought the album did not contain any big surprises: "Farmer's voice is still light, fragile, sometimes quavering" to better evoke emotion.

Always this dark romanticism bathed in mystical, erotic, and morbid image more or less woolly" (Le Journal du dimanche).

[25] On the whole, the album was well received in the media, particularly by the French newspaper Le Monde[14] which stated: "The singularity of the musical and thematic universe of Mylène Farmer, is not overturned, but refined.

[30] In Belgium (Wallonia), the album also debuted at number one on 16 April and remained there for six consecutive before being dislodged by Raphaël's Caravane.

This text refers to a work by Paul Verlaine, Les Poèmes saturniens, one of whose sections is entitled "Mélancholia" (a term used in the refrain of the song).