Veuillez rendre l'âme (à qui elle appartient)

Their first critical and popular success came two years later, in 1989, with their next album, Veuillez rendre l'âme (à qui elle appartient). The album won Noir Désir the Bus d'Acier for 1989, an award given by the press to the best French rock group of the year. It was certified gold, selling over 150,000 copies, and became recognised as one of the best French rock albums ever made. It also produced the hit single: "Aux sombres héros de l'amer", a sea-shanty-like harmonica-driven ballad that uses the concept of sailors lost at sea as a metaphor for life. However the group were dismayed that many people had missed this double meaning of the song, interpreting it as a meaningless sea shanty. They were also disappointed that many people judged them based on the one song, without listening to the rest of the album. In their next two albums the band would return to the harder sound of Où veux-tu qu'je r'garde ? and develop it even further. This development was largely a reaction to their worries about the success of the single Aux sombres héros de l'amer.