Review
Genre and Mood
The Supermen Lovers’ Say No More comes from Between the Ages, an album Discogs files under Euro house, disco and downtempo, and it led an EP filed simply as house. The feelings here are playful and heartfelt, taken from the one description of it we found: Gizmodo called its video “part pop culture parade, part earnest plea”.
Song Summary
Guillaume Atlan composed and produced the song, with arrangements by FM. Majolino and Gennaro Nocerino, and it is the ninth of sixteen tracks on the album, 3:29 long. Between the Ages leans on guest voices from 1980s funk, Rick Bailey of Delegation and Norma Jean Wright of Chic among them, but Say No More credits no guest singer: the EP’s digital credits name The Supermen Lovers as the vocalist.
Musical Breakdown
No source we found describes this recording or gives its times, so this part keeps to its versions and credits.
The Album Version
The original runs 3:29, mixed by Emmanuel Desmadryl and Hervé Bordes. The video here is the label’s upload of this album track.
The Remixes
The Fantasma Disco EP of 26 March 2012 put the original first and added remixes by A.N.D.Y. and Jupiter and a version titled Schokodub, all between five and seven minutes long.
Concepts in Focus
A remix EP is how a dance producer sends one song into many clubs at once. Fantasma Disco took Say No More, an album track, and surrounded it with longer versions by other producers for DJs to choose from; Jupiter’s remix went on to the 2012 Deluxxx edition of the album.
The music video was directed by Adrien de Grivel and designed by Ménage à Trois with a long list of other designers. Gizmodo counted nearly 20 designers “creating a cavalcade of modern icons”, and warned readers that the clip is not safe for work.
Artistic Context
The Supermen Lovers is the Parisian producer Guillaume Atlan, who studied piano at a conservatory for eight years and named the project after Johnny Guitar Watson’s Superman Lover. His 2001 single Starlight reached number two in France and in the UK. After meeting Rick Bailey in 2008 he made an album with funk artists of the 1980s; Between the Ages came out on 7 November 2011 with La Tebwa, alongside The Supermen Lovers, Herr Styler, Cristine – C’est bon.
Impact and Reception
Wikipedia notes a positive critical reaction to three tracks of the album, Say No More, C’est Bon and Take a Chance. Its remixes and its video gave the song a second round in 2012, and The Supermen Lovers – Moments followed. Play the album version first, then a remix, and hear what each producer keeps.
