Robbie Williams è un artista.
In mezzo al blaterare su effimeri nuovi idoli del rock, lolite pop in erba (rasata) e tante mode musicali che continuano ad accavallarsi spazzando regolarmente personaggi fedeli al cliché dettato da Andy Warhol sui famosi 15 minuti di celebrità, il buon Robbie resta un fenomeno mediatico a sé stante, un orgoglio tutto europeo per nulla conforme agli stereotipi dei divi dell’R’n’B/hip hop americano o delle boy band travestite da gruppacci neo-metal.
Eh sì, perché il quarto d’ora di celebrità per Williams dura ormai da 10 anni, e lo stesso fatto di essere stato l’unico a reinventarsi una carriera e una credibilità dopo aver frequentato una delle band per teenagers più famose e criticate dalla stampa, è con il passare del tempo divenuto un punto di forza che acquista una rilevanza e uno spessore maggiore album dopo album.
Robbie Williams è un artista, un grande artista: ha fatto di sé stesso un’arte, nel bene e nel male. Ha reso la sua vita privata un avvincente e inesorabile “ritratto di Dorian Gray" , testimoniato dalle sue canzoni più smaccatamente autobiografiche, ha voluto impersonare mille identità (e non esattamente le più comode, da Frank Sinatra a Freddie Mercury toccando più generi musicali possibile) senza mai vincere a pieni punti ma senza neanche dover scappare con la coda tra le gambe, forte di una delle poche personalità realmente “genuine” e autenticamente irriverenti dello statico e puzzolente showbiz di questi deprimenti anni.
Da quando lasciò i Take That, Robbie Williams ha attraversato diverse crisi personali e diversi scandali che in certi frangenti avrebbero potuto minare fatalmente la sua carriera solista: eppure in un decennio ha tirato fuori dal cilindro 5 album solisti, un “Live At Knewborth” davanti a 250.000 inglesi urlanti, un coraggioso disco di cover di “evergreen” degli anni ’50 e un vendutissimo Greatest Hits.
Difficile fare meglio, no?
E invece l’impressione che si ha a un primo ascolto di “Intensive Care” (titolo che sembra tutto un programma, e a leggere diversi testi ha un valore piuttosto indicativo) è che l’ormai trentenne Williams stia attraversando un periodo sicuramente non facile, ma che potrebbe portare grandi risultati dal punto di vista strettamente musicale: già il precedente “Escapology” del 2002 aveva rappresentato un punto di svolta dal pop laccato e ammiccante degli esordi verso soluzioni stilistiche decisamente più “mature”, ma con l’addio del fidato Guy Chambers le cose sembrano davvero cambiate.
Infatti l’ingresso nella “scuderia Williams” di Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy (un nome celebre per gli appassionati di pop inglese, un raffinato songwriter di culto, fondatore dei Duran Duran e voce dei Lilac Time, che non ha mai avuto il successo che avrebbe meritato) ha portato dei cambiamenti quasi radicali nella struttura delle canzoni: il singolo “Tripping” con il suo evocare irresistibilmente il reggae bianco dei Clash e dei Specials in un crescendo culminato da un finale tipicamente anni ’80, ne è un esempio. Gli arrangiamenti, ovviamente, sono impeccabili, la maggior parte dei brani necessita forse qualche ascolto in più rispetto al passato, ma stiamo comunque parlando di altissimo adult pop, in cui Williams si mette letteralmente “a nudo” con testi quasi imbarazzanti per la loro franchezza (il punkpop di “Your Gay Friend”, possibile singolo, e l’amara ballad finale “King Of Bloke & Bird” che Robbie si rifiuta di cantare dal vivo in quanto “troppo dolorosa”).
Robbie Williams, da frontman navigato e da crooner moderno quale è, si permette di omaggiare (in modo personalissimo) indistintamente e senza far gridare alla bestemmia degli autentici mostri sacri del rock: Williams diventa David Bowie nella toccante “The Trouble With Me”, Morrissey in “Spread Your Wings” (su una trama melodica che ricorda moltissimo “Girlfriend In A Coma” degli Smiths), Mick Jagger in “A Place To Crash” (con un gran bel riff à la Keith Richards), Paddy McAloon dei Prefab Sprout in “Please Don’t Die” e persino Leonard Cohen e Neil Young. Eppure, "Intensive Care” è Robbie Williams al 100%, in tutto il suo istrionismo: certo, l’apporto di Stephen Duffy si sente eccome, e basta sentire brani come l’iniziale “Ghosts” e “Sin Sin Sin”, debitori di quelle uggiose e malinconiche band britanniche degli anni ’80 (Waterboys, Deacon Blue, Aztec Camera) di cui lo stesso Tin Tin fece parte, per trovare un’altra chiave di questo lavoro, cioè il richiamarsi di Williams all’ età dell’adolescenza, irrimediabilmente persa tra i ricordi che si susseguono senza soluzione di continuità (in particolar modo rispetto alla sua vertiginosa vicenda personale).
Da tutta questa serie di considerazioni arrivo dunque a giudicare questo album come un prodotto decisamente onesto, con belle canzoni, e interessantissimo sotto diversi punti di vista, non solo da un punto di vista musicale: il limite di Williams è sempre stato quello di tentare di accontentare più gusti possibili, stavolta l’impressione è che abbia voluto accontentare esclusivamente il suo, e va bene, benissimo, così.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Ghosts (03:42)
Here I stand victorious
The only man who made you come
When you cried, you cried for us
And when we died, you died alone
Gravity's calling
Don't go home
Where are we
Did what I could
For one of us
I always thought it was for you
And when I lied
Oh I lied for us
Because you never heard the truth
I am lying alone tonight
Don't go home
Where are we
If we are ghosts
(A long long time ago)
It looks like we could have made it baby
We are ghosts
(A long long time)
Me and you
We are ghosts
(A long long time ago)
We could have made it
We are ghosts
(A long long time)
Me and you
(Ago)
Look at the time its taken me
To get away from what was said
I'll never leave
I'll always love
You know that all those words are dead
Buried in yours tonight
Move aside
I'm taking you home
On the radio
She was that summer song
Packing them in
Making them dance
A law of her own
Taking the time to sing it
I don't need you
But I'm lost
I'm lost without you tonight
Have you no heart
Where are we
(Everybody sing it)
Ghosts
We love like ghosts
We are ghosts
They're taking down our satellite
We are ghosts
Josephine
I'll follow your star tonight
We are ghosts
If not tonight
Then when will she say
(Everybody sing it)
We're not ghosts
02 Tripping (04:36)
First they ignore you
Then laugh at you and hate you
Then they fight you
Then you win
When the truth dies very bad things happen
They're being heartless again
I know its gone and there's going to be violence
I've taken as much as I'm willing to take
Why do you think we should suffer in silence?
When a heart is broken there's nothing to break
You've been mixing with some very heavy faces
The boys have done a bit of bird
They don't kill their own when they all love their mothers
But you're out of your depth son have a word
I know its gone and there's going to be violence
I've taken as much as I'm willing to take
Why do you think we should suffer in silence?
The heart is broken there's nothing to break
All is wonderful in this life
Dreaming of the sun she warms,
You should see me in the afterlife
Picking up the sons of dust
When you think we're lost we're exploring
What you think is what you're soon adoring
You don't want the truth the truth is boring
I've got this fever, need to
Leave the house
Leave the car
Leave the bad men where they are
I leave a few shells in my gun
N' its Got me staring at the sun....
I know its gone and there's going to be violence
I've taken as much as I'm willing to take
Why do you say we should suffer in silence?
My heart is broken there's nothing to break
03 Make Me Pure (04:33)
Some will sing a song
To reel 'em in
It's a song I sung before
And a song I'm gonna sing again
I mean every word
I don't mean a single one of them
Oh Lord, make me pure
- but not yet
Tell a joke
Tell it twice
If noone else is laughing there why am i
I split myself both times and laugh till i cry
Oh Lord, please make me pure
- but not yet
I don't have to try
I just dial it in
I've never found a job that for me was worth bothering
I got a ton of selfish genes and lazy bones
Beneath this skin
Oh Lord, make me pure
- but not yet
Smoking kills
Sex sells
I've got one hand in my pocket but the other one looks cool as hell
I know I'm gonna die so my revenge is living well
Oh Lord, make me pure
- but not yet
I stopped praying
So I hope this song will do
I wrote it all for you
I'm not perfect but you don't mind that, do you?
I know you're there to pull me through, aren't you?
So I look for love
I like the search
And I'll be standing for election all across the known universe
Let every president get the country she deserves
Oh Lord, make me pure
- but not yet
And I've been seeing
Somebody's wife
She said she'd leave him for me and I said that wasn't wise
You can't lie to a liar because of all lies
Oh Lord, please make me pure
- not yet
04 Spread Your Wings (03:50)
I used to live 'round here
I was the boy with the flash clothes
She was the girl with the acid stare
I saw her at the place
You knows she knows you know
How she shakes
When she jacks her body
To the sounds of Oran Juice Jones
And Jocelyn Brown
Oh spread your wings
Before they fall apart
Home is where the hurt is darlin'
Follow your heart
So she walks into this dead end bar
Sticks her handbag
On the chair
So she walks into this dead end bar
Puts hers handbag on the chair
And she waits
For words we shared
When we were 15 and still cared
Cos she feels I'm a scar from the wound that time cant heal
And I said
Don't let your dreams out of your head
Stick it to the man instead
Don't fool your heart
Lying about the fears that you had back then
Did you try to change your life
Did you ever try to change your life
You repeat and repeat and repeat
Now what's up with that
Now she loves somebody else
In flash clothes
She was the girl with the acid stare
And now she paid to have
One of those
And she weighs the word she says
And she knows
You exist
Now she feels I'm the scar from the wound that time cant heal
Oh spread your wings
Before they fall apart
Home is where the hurt is darlin
Follow your heart
Spread your wings
Before they fall apart
Home is where the hurt is darlin
Follow your heart
Heart, heart, heart
05 Advertising Space (04:37)
There's no earthly way of knowing
What was in your heart
When it stopped going
The whole world shook
A storm was blowing through you
Waiting for God to stop this
And up to your neck in darkness
Everyone around you was corrupted
Saying somethin'
There's no dignity in death
To sell the world your last breath
They're still fighting over
Everything you left over
I saw you standing at the gates
When Marlon Brando passed away
You had that look upon your face
Advertising space
And
No one learned from your mistakes
We let our profit s go to waste
All that's left in any case
Is Advertising space
Through your eyes
The world was burning
Please be gentle
I'm still learning
You seemed to say
As you kept turning up
They poisoned you with compromise
At what point did you realise
Everybody loves your lies
But you ahahh
Special agent for the man
Through watergate and vietnam
No one really gave a damn
Did you think the CIA did
I saw you standing at the gates
When Marlon Brando passed away
You had that look upon your face
Advertising space
And
No one learned from your mistake
We let our profits go to waste
All that's left in any case
Is Advertising space
No one learned from your mistakes
We let our profits go to waste
All that's left in any case
Is Advertising space
I've seen your daughter
Man shes cute
I was scared but I wanted to
Boy she looks a lot like you
08 Sin Sin Sin (04:09)
Don't let your eyes tell the brain
You should feel ashamed
Everyone needs it baby
And I feel the same
Didn't quite catch your name
Hush, hush, hush
Don't say a thing
Let's see what the night will bring
It might be everything
Oh it hurts
When you're too blind to see
Please don't read my mind
I tell the truth to me
Sin sin sin
Look where we've been
And where we are tonight
Hate the sin not the sinner
I'm just after a glimmer
Of love and light
Deep inside
Hush hush hush
To speak is a sin
And neither of us
Need rescuing
Just relax
It's what Jesus would do
We're made in his image baby
Let's ride this thing through
Oh it hurts
When you're to blind to see
What about us
Well it was just for me
Sin sin sin
Look where we've been
And where we are tonight
Hate the sin not the sinner
I'm just after a glimmer
Of love and light
Deep inside
I won't sing of amore
It don't sound sincere
Love is a cliche
But it fits not here
I'll disappear
Sin sin sin
Look where we've been
And where we are tonight
Hate the sin not the sinner
I'm just after a glimmer
Of love and light
Deep inside
Deep inside
It's love
Clean sex joy
I love you
You love my
Hate how it it feels inside
Feels inside
Feels inside
09 Random Acts of Kindness (04:15)
For those about to die
We salute you
For those of about to cry
We love you
For those of us who live in fear
Of Happy Christmas and new year
I raise a toast to you
And if it hurts
To be so blind
Why dont you try
Being kind
They decided to become
A little more romantic
Creep up on you
While you sleep
I'll make you less attractive
Born without a spine
Why dont you try
Being kind
For those attempting their mother's way
You'll find a way to soldier on
For those whose love evaporates
I pray you find where you belong
All the words I have repressed
Are coming out today
I guess
It is justice not respect and avarice
And that just leaves comtempt
For you all
Oh oh oh
Yeah yeah
Yeah
I am just a simple man
With simple expectations
Deep regrets
They're seldom met
God speed my generation
And with ? on my mind
I should try being kind
For those about to die
We salute you
For those of about to cry
We love you
For those about to die
We salute you
For those of about to cry
We love you
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di The Punisher
Il risultato è un disco freddo, glaciale, dove trasuda un'anima "finta", studiata a tavolino.
Quelle canzoni vere che ti fanno venire la pelle d'oca non abitano qui, in questo disco caruccio e gradevole, che sa tanto di sonora presa per il culo.
Di ste84
Ma non è colpa mia se questo tizio riempie di miele alcune cose a tal punto da farti venire le carie alle orecchie!
Robbie Williams è un “esempio”: è la cosa che mi fa capire che anche se non sei nessuno né sei migliore degli altri devi sempre comportarti come se lo fossi...
Di BLACK METAL
"comprare questo cd è come buttare dei soldi fuori dalla finestra!!!"
"più che un disco, questo lo definirei una perfetta macchina di tortura."
Di AR (Anonima Recensori)
Il disco è manifestamente influenzato da sonorità anni '80 e mira a un pop più maturo e sperimentale.
L'album si configura come un'interessante prova di maturità per Robbie Williams, passata con riserva.
