A quasi cinque anni di distanza da "Arena" e dagli "Archiva"s, Geoff Downes e John Payne si ritrovano per un altro disco; reclutano un esercito di session men, tra i quali i formers-fondatori Carl Palmer e Steve Howe, e, senza peraltro coinvolgerli nel processo creativo, partoriscono "Aura", il disco più singolare della loro discografia.
Particolare perché quasi interamente composto da ballads, quasi del tutto privo di sonorità e schemi AOR, con pochissimi episodi dal sapore Arena, e con tastiere che, se non sempre suonano al passo coi tempi (e qui siamo nel 2001), perlomeno non sono le sguaiate, plasticose, tonnellate di keys di sempre.
Una musica spaziale, in cui i tasti di Downes servono per far calare l'atmosfera e per dar maggior respiro ai brani, mentre la vocalità da superdotato di John Payne si cimenta con acuti e falsetti: non te lo saresti aspettato, un Payne così delicato e fine, ma questo signore sa far tutto.
E' uno Star Wars pop, quello che si può ascoltare: pop-rock leggero di buona fattura, reso cosmico da Downes e dai tipici Asia-cori. Velata di Arena solo l'iniziale "Awake", mentre "The Longest Night" è l'unico vero episodio AOR, tra l'altro una powerballad. L'unico vero pomp rock pesante e puro è l'incalzante e riuscitissima (cosa rara, per gli Asia) "Free", che tra decelerazioni, accelerazioni e l'inconfondibile apporto di Steve Howe, arriva a sfiorare in più momenti il confine con la Yessong.
Dato che le atmosfere ricreate sono pressoché simili tra di loro, e che le tastiere di Buggle Downes sono pressoché "astrali" ed "incorporee", prive dunque di sangue e muscoli, "Aura" rischia d'apparire un pò soporifero, soprattutto se l'ascolto è superficiale-distratto. Ma ad un ascolto che più sa di cimento o d'immersione, presto ci si rende conto d'avere a che fare con un lavoro di canzoni che vanno dal decente a salire. Senza episodi clamorosamente superiori, ma neppure cadute (a peso morto) di stile.
Un disco di coerenza, finalmente dimostrazione di quanto bene questi artigiani sappiano fare il proprio mestiere. Resta da chiedersi come mai (quasi) solo ballads... Che si fossero finalmente resi conto che i loro Aor erano finiti fuori dal tempo? Che i signori, oramai inevitabilmente attempati, non avessero più voglia di cazzeggiare con l'FM (e trovatemi in giro una radio che metta quel tipo di musica!) o di "battagliare" col pomp rock? O, più semplicemente, l'inevitabile inaridimento creativo (o gli esiti nefasti, a livello e qualitativo e di vendite, della maggior parte dei loro dischi) ha suggerito loro di mantenersi sui fidati selciati del pop rock d'autore? Fatto sta che "Aura", del 2001, è un lavoro molto ben riuscito. Su cosa contenga, in fondo, è vano discutere: ognuno fa quel che sa far meglio. O quel che più conviene.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Awake (06:00)
(Adapted from 'The Rubaiyat' of Omar Khayyam)
"The dawning of a brand new day
The waking of the whispers say:
That sleeping heavens will return
In deepest night the secret learned
And from these walls this city lies
The past will be our future
The journey will be over,
Awake!"
I saw the writing on the wall
The story of our birth then fall
Within their tombs of holy stone
The scrolls of life, one man alone
So if we try, we can live and learn
The sands will pull you under
Don't let them pull you under
Awake!
I travelled to a foreign land
Through stormy seas and burning sand
Led by the stars the ancient stream
The call of treasures yet unseen
So if we climb to the rocks of kings
Together we'll discover
The source of all our wonder
Awake!
Someday we're going to go back to the stars
And find the answer, who we really are
A traveller through the lonely mists of time
Creation from the sky
The dawning of a brand new day
The waking of the whispers say:
That sleeping heavens will return
In deepest night the secret learned
From these walls this city lies
The past will be our future
The journey will be over
Awake!
Someday we're going to go back to the stars
And find the answer who we really are
A traveller through the lonely mists of time
Creation from the sky
Someday we're going to back to the stars
And find the answer who we really are
If we try, we can live and learn
Together we'll discover
The source of all our wonder
Awake!
We saw the writing
We read the story
Awake!
Music & Lyrics by: Geoff Downes & John Payne
02 Wherever You Are (04:48)
Whenever your shadow falls on stony ground
And there's not a hand for you to hold
Whenever the dreams you dream come crashing down
Every time you think of home
Remember that you're not alone
And we'll be with you heart and soul
Wherever you are
And if you should lose your path along the way
And find yourself walking in the dark
Whenever the ones you love seem far away
Every time you think of home
Remember that you're not alone
And we'll be with you heart and soul
Wherever you are
Whenever the fears you hide come reaching through
Every time you think of home
Remember that you're not alone
And we'll be with you heart and soul
Every time you think of home
Remember that you're not alone
And we'll be with you heart and soul
We'll be with you heart and soul
Wherever you are
We're with you heart and soul
Music & Lyrics by: Andrew Gold, Graham Gouldman, Geoff Downes & John Payne
05 Forgive Me (05:23)
Silent wave coming down on me
Washing out the lie
Living inside me
Life's not hard
Now I'm on TV
This sudden twist of Fate
I am direct salvation
Just send in your donation
I can promise that you'll be saved
Forgive me, World
I'm just a man who's lost his way
Forgive me, these two words I pray
It's time to make a change
Yesterday was a different day
Thought I knew the answer
A vision in my mind
Search my soul
And then you will find
A shelter for my pain
The truth is in the open
And now my heart has spoken
Hoping maybe you'll hear my cry
Forgive me, World
I'm just a man who's lost his way
Forgive me, these two words I pray
It's time to make a change
Forgive me, World
I'm just a man who sins today
Forgive me, these two words I pray
My Faith is still the same
Maybe I can't change the past
Maybe love can bring us back
Maybe we can try and start again.
Forgive me, World
Music & Lyrics by: Jimmy Santis/Richard Tancredi/Geoff Downes & John Payne
08 Free (08:12)
Look into the distance, you're living in a cage
A fire burns inside you, that fuels all the rage
You're thinking of the outside, and dream of the past
The gates to freedom lie within your grasp
They're changing the system, rewriting the laws
Renaming religion, reshaping your cause
You always be lonely, walking with fools
The shadows in the doorways make the rules
Because you're free, this time
Don't be scared of who you are
Free, to find
There's no hiding in the dark
A new day is dawning, a New Age begun
Nobody told you which way you should run
Wait for the thunder, break from the shell
Is this the gate to freedom from this Hell?
Because you're free, this time
Don't be scared of who you are
Free, to find
There's no hiding in the dark
Free, this time
You can learn to live again
Free, to find
There is shelter from the rain
Free
They're razing the fences in the pastures of doom
The fields of our heroes, the land won by few
The call of a New World, dream to transcend
Now it's time to fight and start again
Because you're free, this time
Don't be scared of who you are
Free, to find
There's no hiding in the dark
Because you're free, this time
You can learn to live again
Free, to find
There is shelter from the rain
Music & Lyrics by: Geoff Downes & John Payne
09 You're the Stranger (05:46)
Don't hang that sign on me
You're the stranger
Don't try to talk to me
You're the stranger
On the seas
They came from far away
From the skies
Their silver birds of prey
In one day
Ten thousand years could change
We are fools
To live your pilgrim ways
Don't hang that sign on me
You're the stranger
Don't try to talk to me
You're the stranger
And we drive
Five hundred miles this time
To the edge
Of crystal-cut blue sky
Silence breathes
South of the border line
Silent trees
Look back and wonder why
Did Father and his Holy Son
Spread the word and point the gun?
And where the eagle used to fly
They carve their concrete in the sky
Tearing at our Mother's skin
Taking all her blood within
Remember how it used to be?
Did Father and his Holy Son
Spread the word and point the gun
And where the eagle used to fly
They carve their concrete in the sky
Tearing at our Mother's skin
Taking all her blood within
Remember how it used to be?
Stand up again and say:
Don't hang that sign on me
You're the stranger
Don't try to talk to me
You're the stranger
Don't hang that sign on me
You're the stranger
Don't try to talk to me
You're the stranger
Music & Lyrics by: Geoff Downes & John Payne
10 The Longest Night (05:21)
"What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
- Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires."
(Wilfred Owen, 1918)
Now the day has run
When the cover comes
But any fool can see
Ahead
Silence is my friend
But it has to end
Any fool can see
Ahead
It's the longest night
It's the longest night
Cold winds may blow
On the longest night
So we write our letters
To those far away
Any fool can see
Ahead
The distant sound of thunder
A choir of wailing shells
Any fool can see
Ahead
It's the longest night
It's the longest night
Cold winds may blow
On the longest night
I don't want to fight
I don't know who's right
Cold winds they blow
On this longest night
It's the longest night
It's the longest night
Cold winds may blow
On this longest night
Music & Lyrics by: Geoff Downes, John Payne & Ben Woolfenden
12 Under the Gun (04:49)
As the world is caving in
From the pressures of the day
And you feel that you can't win
But you know you'll have to stay
We have to toe the line
It's so hard to take the pace
You're a better man that I
In the perfect human race
So... we live... Under The Gun...
We live... Under The Gun.
See the writing on the wall
In the city's caves of steel
Hear the echoes of the night
Will the anger ever heal?
So... we live... Under The Gun...
We live... Under The Gun... we live...
Under The Gun... we live...
Your mind control, your gift of lies
You brother, dear we're screaming
You said you cared, we needed you
You mother, now you're leaving
So... we live... Under The Gun...
We live... Under The Gun...
We live... Under The Gun... we live...
Under The Gun...
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