• Voto:
Quando chiesi ad un mio compagno di studi cosa gli ricordasse la copertina dell'album "Love" degli Aztec Camera, rimasi piuttosto deluso. "Una giostra", egli mi rispose, non senza qualche ragione. A ben guardare era la risposta più ovvia e probabilmente anche quella giusta. All'epoca, però, in piena "sbornia" filosofica, a me quella più corretta ed anche scontata sembrava un'altra: il mito della biga alata e dell'auriga, quello che si trova in un dialogo platonico, "Fedro", dove si dibatte anche, ma guarda un po', dell'amore. Non poteva essere una semplice coincidenza. Il terzo album del colto Frame, che attendevo da più di tre anni dopo che i due precedenti mi avevano deliziato, quindi, si presentava ai miei occhi ancor più carico di aspettative. Non mi sembrava vero che l'ottimo Roddy, ormai one-man-band, potesse alleviare le copiose pene d'amore che quella stagione mi riservava. Così, già prima di posizionarlo sul piatto, suggestionato quell'impegnativa copertina, mi ero convinto che dall'ascolto di questo disco n'avrei tratto un beneficio, non solo estetico. Non rimasi deluso, anche se di filosofico in senso stretto c'era ben poco.
Perché il travagliato parto di "Love", prodotto "nientepopodimenoche" da Tommy LiPuma e Russ Titlman, che porterà il nostro, non solo musicalmente, nel Nuovo Continente, era davvero quello che ci voleva per un "ammalato" che aspirava alla "convalescenza". La casistica amorosa, con i dolci dolori e con i vertiginosi alti e bassi, è rappresentata nel migliore dei modo, a partire dall'idillio di "Deep & Wide & Tall" (..."Are we going to live together / Lovers over all / One unending understanding / Deep & wide & tall..."), frizzante pop d'annata delle highlands che sposa la black. Seguono le crisi, le insite contraddizioni, che trovano spazio nell'emozionante new soul di "How Man Are" ("It's called love / And every cruelty will cloud it / And his lie / True love could never allow it / 'Cos it's a lie that we have ceased to believe / We've said good-bye but it won't take its leave / Why should it take the tears of a woman / To see how men are..."). Non potevano mancare il passaggio "all'amore e basta", che crede di poter fare a meno delle convenzioni ("We make love in the face of it all / Feel the freedom and the purity / And what we need is not security / Something more than a law...") e l'esaltazione che solo la vera passione sa regalare, descritta con l'ingenuo ma contagioso rock'n'roll di "Somewhere In My Hearth" o con la penna intinta nel miele, come nel caso della luminosa, è proprio il caso di dire, metafora di "Working In The Goldmine" ('Cos I believe in your heart of gold / Automatically sunshine / Yeah, glitter, glitter everywhere / Like working in a goldmine..."). Il percorso termina con un bivio: la felicità insperata e abbagliante di "Paradise", altro pure-pop venato di "nero"; oppure la malinconia e le recriminazioni, condite da copiose libagioni, di "Killermont Street ".
In un altro più famoso dialogo platonico l'amore è visto come il ripristino di una mitica unione, il ricongiungimento di due metà complementari separate dagli dei causa l'arroganza degli uomini. Ecco, diciamo che con "Love" Frame, nel suo piccolo, ci ricorda come sia tormentata e allo stesso tempo esaltante la ricerca della nostra metà perduta.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Deep & Wide & Tall (04:49)
My girl
She fled the fatherland
And all its dumb demands
My girl
She is the essence pure
She's super sure, she's got the cure
She's love's ambassadress
With a message
Here comes the bottom line
Are we going to live together
Lovers over all
One unending understanding
Deep & wide & tall
My girl
She is the sweetest sound
When living lets me down
My girl
Can turn me on this way
From a world away
She's love's ambassadress
She's got a message
Here comes the bottom line
Are we going to live together
Lovers over all
One unending understanding
Deep & wide & tall
02 How Men Are (03:41)
It's called love
And every cruelty will cloud it
And his lie, his lie
True love could never allow it
'Cos it's a lie that we have ceased to believe
We've said goodbye but it won't take its leave
Why should it take the tears of a woman
To see how men are
P. E. R. S. P. E. C. T. I. V. E.
It's no mystery
What you don't know always gets you
It will hurt you and desert you
So you'd better seeThat it's a damage ever done by degrees
And some will take eternity to believe
Why should it take the tears of a woman
To see how men are
'Cos love is a giving with no need of return
It lends itself to everything
And maybe someday man will see
That love is a lesson money never taught us to learn
Love is the power to have
Without the premise that there's nothing for free
And sometimes when we're just getting by and getting along
It's like we're scared to see that something is wrong
Why should it take (why should) the tears of a woman (the tears of a woman)
To see how men are (To see how men are)
Why should it take (why should) the tears of a woman (the tears of a woman)
To see how men are (To see how men are... To see how men are)
P. E. R. S. P. E. C. T. I. V. E.
It's no mystery, s'no mystery (no mystery)
(P. E. R. S. P. E. C. T. I. V. E.
It's history
You better see
P. E. R. S. P. E. C. T. I. V. E...)
04 More Than a Law (04:43)
Words and music by roddy frame
Vocals & guitars roddy frame. bass & keyboard programming jeff bova. drums
Jimmy bralower. background vocals scott parker. produced by roddy frame.
Engineered by josh abbey.
I've seen that recipe
Lawmen and royalty
And nothing on earth can take that taste
And make it something sweet
I saw the news today
A broken everything with years to pay
And nobody else can save us now
And that's alright by me
'cos I say
Chorus:
We make love in the face of it all
Feel the freedom and the purity
And what we need is not security
Something more than a law
We walk at night in a blind wind
Through the streets where the rich ones lived
And what we want's beyond the will to win
Something more than a law
I feel the rain on me
I'm soaked in memory
And never will I betray that love
'cos that's not love by me
I know prosperity
But he could never be a part of me
The snow and the stone
Feeling never at home
Well she's my poetry
'cos I say
Chorus
And when we're lonely
It's more than lonely
So we turn around to say something bigger than us
But then who do you blame when your love is gone?
05 Somewhere in My Heart (04:00)
Summer in the city where the air is still
A baby being born to the overkill
Well who cares what people say
We walk down love's motorway
Ambition and love wearing boxing gloves
And singing hearts and flowers
But somewhere in my heart
There is a star that shines for you
Silver splits the blue
Love will see it through
And somewhere in my heart
There is the will to set you free
All you've got to be
Is true
A star above the city in the northern chill
A baby being born to the overkill
No say, no place to go
A TV, a radio
Ambition and love wearing boxing gloves
And singing hearts and flowers
But somewhere in my heart
There is a star that shines for you
Silver splits the blue
Love will see it through
And somewhere in my heart
There is the will to set you free
All you've got to be
Is true
Who could heal
What's never been as one
And our hearts have been torn
Since the day we were born
Just like anyone
From Westwood to Hollywood
The one thing that's understood
Is that you can't buy time
But you can sell your soul
And the closest thing to heaven is to rock and roll
But somewhere in my heart
There is a star that shines for you
Silver splits the blue
Love will see it through
And somewhere in my heart
There is the will to set you free
All you've got to be
Is true
Somewhere in my heart
There is a star that shines for you
Silver splits the blue
Love will see it through
And somewhere in my heart
There is the will to set you free
All you've got to be
Is true
06 Working in a Goldmine (05:44)
Words and music by Roddy Frame
vocals & guitars RODDY FRAME. keyboards & programming MICHAEL JONZUN.
drums STEVE JORDAN. percussion CAROL STEELE. bass WILL LEE. background
vocals ROBIN CLARK, GORDON GRODY and LANI GROVES. produced by ROB
MOUNSEY. engineered by RICHARD ALDERSON and KEVIN HALPIN.
Our love's the sound
Of broken skies
Too blind to see
What lies inside
We love what shines
Before our eyes
Why can't we learn
What hides?
Chorus:
Waiting on the last train
Flicking through the highlights
Livin' in a suitcase
Positively uptight
Kissing in the full moon
Drowning in the sunshine
Walking on a tightrope
And everything is gonna be just fine
'Cos I believe in your heart of gold
Automatically sunshine
Yeah glitter, glitter everywhere
Like working in a goldmine
And we believe that there's a heart beats on
In the dark of the closedown
Yeah glitter, glitter everywhere
Like working in a goldmine
And time not tied
Is time to feed
We lose our pride
We spill our seed
The worst of us
Escape so slow
The best of us
Just goes
Chorus
They'll make you work for everything
Never let it roll
Never let it swing
Take control and let your heart sing
08 Paradise (04:34)
Words and music by roddy frame
Vocals & guitars roddy frame. keyboards & programming david frank. drums
Steve gadd. bass marcus miller. background vocals robin clark, gordon grody
And lani groves. produced by tommy li puma and david frank. engineered by
Eric calvi.
I've been searching
Seems like so long
For perfection
In a world made wrong
Here it's hard to be strong
Seems like we're heading
Down and down and down
But that's love
In my life, a million dreams take over
Paradise, a million miles away
You've been hurting
And I can see
As the world turns round and round
You spin with me
And when you're down
Don't you know I'm down too
But up or down
There's nowhere else I'd rather be
Than with you
In my mind, a million dreams take over
Paradise, a million miles away
In my life, a million dreams take over
Paradise, a million miles away
But walking down this lonely road
I stop and think of you
And I can see now
'cos I believe now
Paradise is true
Paradise is you
09 Killermont Street (03:17)
Words and music by roddy frame
Vocals & guitars roddy frame. keyboards & programming rob mounsey. drums
Steve jordan. bass will lee. produced by rob mounsey and roddy frame.
Engineered by richard alderson and kevin halpin.
As the city asleep
Shares it's dreams and desires
Every wish that we keep
Will trace a line to other times, other places
Though the song of the proud
Howls and dies, never fall for defeat
Take a trip to reprieve
Every hour they leave
From killermont street
Drink a drink to before
And our memories spill
Adding on as they pour
From our saturdays and secret sensations
Drink a drink to tonight
Whisky words tumble down in the street
With the pain that they cure
Sentimentally yours
From killermont street
And with collar upturned
I made it south to see
That the love I had spurned
Was just the hate in me
As the ships and the steel
Slip away to the cry of 'compete'
There's a message for us
We can get there by bus
From killermont street
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