• Voto:
Nel 1928 Magritte dipingeva "Gli amanti", due persone di sesso opposto avvolte in un lenzuolo che si baciano. O almeno, ci provano. Osservare quel dipinto è come provare ad annusare l'aria in una calda mattina di primavera e non sentire nulla, il naso tappato e i fiori fuori, timidamente sbocciati dopo un lungo e restio inverno; osservare quel dipinto è come quando nei sogni provi a parlare ma qualcosa non te lo permette, e ci provi con tutte le tue forze ma non riesci a proferir suono, nessuno ti sente, ti dimeni, non riesci a ricordare in quale momento hai prestato la tua voce a Ursula per avere in cambio le gambe, che le gambe ce le hai, e la voce no. Quel bacio rappresenta questa impossibilità terribile: provi a entrare in rapporto con un essere umano, ma la tua condizione non te lo permette e ti limiti a un bacio soffocato. Le stesse sensazioni me le provoca la visione della copertina di questo album.
La copertina di Think Tank fu realizzata appositamente per i Blur da Banksy nel 2003 e rappresenta due persone, un uomo e una donna, nell'atto di abbracciarsi, un abbraccio che si pensa sia un preludio a un bacio che non ci sarà mai, perchè i due hanno dei giganteschi caschi da palombaro che impediscono loro di avvicinarsi. Sono veramente ingombranti. Anche qui un'impossibilità di rapporto, di relazione, il limite tra due persone che di fatto stanno sott'acqua, in un'ambiente senza aria in cui è impossibile respirare, parlare, svolgere le funzioni vitali normali. E se ci fossero due mascherine? Banksy nel 2021 le avrebbe disegnate due mascherine (probabilmente sarebbero state due maschere antigas), immagine quanto mai inflazionata di un futuro prossimo in cui ci saremmo protetti gli uni dagli altri vedendo nell'altro il pericolo di essere intaccati e demoliti; purtroppo quel futuro per noi è un presente, è un rapporto impossibile, un bacio soffocante e soffocato, una fusione alcalina e tossica. Comunque Think tank è tante cose: oltre ad avere anche un riferimento storico-politico, essendo un organismo nato durante la seconda guerra mondiale che si occupa delle politiche pubbliche fondato negli US, rappresenta la speranza per dei rapporti migliori, è un "serbatoio di pensieri" che se da una parte è un esplosione di creatività, non permette di agire nell'immediatezza dall'altra, nuotando in un'acqua che fa attrito e non ci fa raggiungere la riva della spontaneità. Ed è forse qui che risiede il gap concettuale-sperimentale dell'album. Il concetto dell'impossibilità della relazione è alla base significante dell'album, un album pieno di speranza per un futuro migliore, fatto di rapporti più trasparenti, fiorenti, sinceri; in effetti i Blur erano da un po' che non si beccavano, Damon Albarn si era fatto i suoi viaggetti per il mondo e le sue sperimentazioni in altri progetti, come con i fantastici Gorillaz. A questo punto aveva pensato: perchè non tornare dai vecchi amici e far capire attraverso un album tutto introspettivo e a tratti veramente dolcissimo come il loro rapporto sarebbe potuto andare meglio? Perché non spazzare via tutte le dicerie dei tabloid sui Blur semplicemente facendo ottima musica? Infondo è quello che conta, ed è quello che hanno fatto.
Think Tank è senza dubbio lontano dalle sonorità britpop degli album precedenti ed è sicuramente l’esito di una sperimentazione molto ampia: presenta infatti anche sonorità esotiche e veramente interessanti, il tutto legato dall’idea della stratificazione di suoni: un ambiente sonoro in cui immergersi e recuperare i rapporti perduti, con se stessi e con il mondo. Tutti i brani hanno una caratterizzazione specifica, ognuno è caratterialmente dirompente (parliamo di Crazy Beat, del punk di We’ve got a File on You, delle reminscenze dei Clash più etnici di Moroccan Peoples Revolutionary Bowls Club) con tratti dolci e melodici (parliamo ovviamente del capolavoro dell’album Out of Time, perfetta fusione tra melodia e sperimentazione).
Think Tank è un mondo di suoni in cui i Blur si reinventano e mettono in pratica la loro capacità di estraniarsi dal mondo e trasformare questa situazione fluttuante cercando di mettere ogni tanto i piedi per terra, una terra che si chiama britpop che riesce a smorzare l'aria anti-gravitazionale generale dell'album. Ogni traccia dell’album disegna un panorama differente: siamo di fronte a piccole monadi conchiuse in se stesse, autosufficienti , piccoli universi di pensiero multilaterale e multiculturale che vanno a costituire una perla nel curriculum dei Blur. Suoni etnici che si fondono con beat elettronici e futuristici, che mostrano l’irrimediabile trivialità del senso musicale che nella sua immediatezza risulta autosufficiente ed efficace. Un viaggio sonoro che arricchisce, mai scontato, che può obiettivamente lasciare anche un po’ spaesati e fluttuanti. Al che uno si chiede: "Are We Out of Time?”.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Ambulance (05:08)
I ain't got
Nothing to be scared of,
No I ain't got
Nothing to be scared of
No I ain't got
Anything to be scared of
'Cos I love you
I was born out of love
It's the only way to come into this world
I know I'm not all there
But I'm getting, getting, getting there
If you let me live my life
I'll stay with you to the end
And I know, lord
I'm nearly there
I want to tell you this
I ain't got
Nothing to be scared of, no
No I ain't got
Nothing to be scared of, no
No I ain't got
Anything to be scared
Cause I love you
I ain't got
Nothing to be scared of
No ain't got
Nothing to be scared of x 2
02 Out of Time (03:51)
Where's the love song to set us free
Too many people down
Everything turning the wrong way round
And I don't know what life would be
If we stop dreaming now
Lord knows we'd never clear the clouds
And you've been so busy lately that you haven't found the time
To open up your mind
And watch the world spinning gently out of time
Feel the sunshine on your face
It's in a computer now
Gone to the future way out in space
And you've been so busy lately that you haven't found the time
To open up your mind
And watch the world spinning gently out of time
And you've been so busy lately that you haven't found the time
To open up your mind
And watch the world spinning gently out of time
Tell me I'm not dreaming
But are we out of time
We're out of time
Out of time
03 Crazy Beat (03:14)
You got to get it together
Stop shooting at me
You're just a teenage industry
Why are the CIA having fun
They think you're clever cuz you've
blown up your lungs
But I love to hear that crazy beat
(yeah yeah yeah y yeah)
Gets the people dancing on their feet
(yeah yeah yeah y yeah)
And I love to live in paradise
I love my brothers on a Saturday night
break up!
I'm on my mobile
I'm talking to the president
I got to hit him for the money I've spent
Trying to get him to party with me
I even offered him ecstasy
But I love to hear that crazy beat
(yeah yeah yeah y yeah)
Gets the people dancing on their feet
(yeah yeah yeah y yeah)
And I love to live in paradise
(yeah yeah yeah y yeah)
I love my sister and I love her tonight
Break up!...It's a beat
And I love to hear that crazy beat
(yeah yeah yeah y yeah)
Gets the people dancing on their feet
(yeah yeah yeah y yeah)
And I love to live in paradise
I love my brothers on a Saturday night
And I love to hear that crazy beat
(yeah yeah yeah y yeah)
Gets the people dancing on their feet
(yeah yeah yeah y yeah)
And I love to live in paradise
I love my sister and I love her tonight
Yeah yeah yeah y yeah...
06 Brothers and Sisters (03:47)
Brothers and sisters
Rebuild your lives
We're all drug takers
Give us something tonight
A cartoon in a ketamine
Jelly mixed with margarine
White doves from the war machine
Every body movin
Cocaine is for murderers
Codeine for the jurors
Caffeine been through all of us
Everybody horney
Crackwhores back in town again
Eggships sniffing benelyn
Burning all the oil again
Smoking makes you holy
Textin abbreviates the brain
Aspirin takes away the pain
Rock on, everyone the same
That's the way it is
Brothers and sisters
Rebuild your lives
We're all drug takers
Give us something tonight
Rohypnol like a chloroform
Sugar from the day you are born
Washed out like a dinosaur
Really don't believe it.
Sticky sniffing superglue
sulphates keeps you in a zoo
Monkeys turning into you
Everybody horney
Acid good up on the moors
Gimpo stops you getting bored
Beta's busy making laws
Procaine stops your screaming
Librium for anxiety
Drinking is our society
Guessing out of tirety
That's the way it is
that's the way it is even when we're pissed
07 Caravan (04:35)
Caravan is lost
In the sun and the dust
No-one loves you
When you are lost
Yeah I've been a clown
Trying to pull my whole world down
I believed I was strong
And when it comes you'll feel
the weight of it
the weight of it
And the day will come when you'll
get away from it
Sometimes everything is easy
Sometimes everything is easy
I tried to quit
But my heart won't buy it
I got family
The caravan came back for me
And when it comes you'll feel the
weight of it
The weight of it
And the day will come when you'll
get away from it
Away from it
Sometimes everything is easy
Sometimes everything is easy
08 We've Got a File on You (01:01)
we've got a file on you
we've got a file on you
we've got a file on you
we've got a on you
we've got a file on you
we've got a file on you
we've got a file on you
we got a on you
09 Moroccan Peoples Revolutionary Bowls Club (02:52)
The trees are spinning oxygen
They're the rockets we should fear
If we go and let them off then we will disappear
Then we will disappear, surely we will disappear
The road is hot and dusty
The desert needs a beer
But if we go and blow it up then we will disappear
Then we will disappear, surely we will disappear
If we go and blow it up then we will disappear
We will disappear surely
We will disappear
11 Jets (06:23)
Jets are like comets at sunset
Jets are like comets at sunset
Jets are like comets at sunset
Jets are like comets at sunset
Jets are like comets at sunset
Jets are like comets at sunset
Jets are like comets at sunset
Jets are like comets at sunset
Jets are like comets at sunset
Jets are like comets
Jets are like comets
12 Gene by Gene (03:48)
I've got a brain in lefthand drive
I don't sleep otherside
I ride a bullet like I'm Steve McQueen
Each time I intervene
I got a Keith and the barn is jumping
It's alright we've got time
Got a radio hit in mind
Can't see through my blind
Every night and day I never dug it
in the USA
I delete myself
Got to get to know you gene by gene
You're my jellybean
Get out the shower round four fifteen
And I'm dead when I'm clean
Fatboy and the barn is pumping
It's alright its just tight
Got to get into a better buisness
Deep down happiness
Every night and day I never dug it
in the USA
I delete myself
13 Battery in Your Leg (06:21)
This is a ballad for the good times
So put a battery in your leg
Put a rock beat over anything
Get it stuck there in your head
You can be with me
I got nothing to rely on
I've broken every bone
Everybody's stopped believing
But you know you're not alone
You can be with me
This is a ballad for the good times
And all the dignity we had
Don't get caught up on the evil things
You ain't coming back
You can be with me
If you wanna be
You can be with me
14 Me, White Noise (03:18)
OI!
You let yourself down and you don't know why
but you've ????
I'm the original
I'm the original
when it comes to the suburbs, I'm the original
Being English isn't about hate
it's about disgust
we're all disgusting
and then you move move move move
and you push push push push
and you trip over yourself and you think to yourself
why am I here?
I'm here cos I got no fucking choice
and furthermore, furthermore
you're boring (x5)
15 Beetlebum (03:29)
Beetlebum, what you done
She's a gun, now what you done, Beetlebum
Get nothing done, you Beetlebum
Just get numb, now what you done, Beetlebum
And when she lets me slip away
She turns me on and all my violence gone
Nothing is wrong, I just slip away and I am gone
Nothing is wrong, she turns me on
I just slip away and I am gone
Beetlebum, because you're young
She's a gun, now what you done, Beetlebum
She'll suck your thumb, she'll make you come
Cos she's your gun, now what you done, Beetlebum
And when she lets me slip away
She turns me on and all my violence gone
Nothing is wrong, I just slip away and I am gone
There's nothing wrong, she turns me on
I just slip away and I am
He's on, he's on, he's on it,
He's on, he's on, he's on it. (to end)
16 Song 2 (01:18)
Wooooo oooo!
Wooooo oooo!
Wooooo oooo!
Wooooo oooo!
I got my head checked
By a jumbo jet
It wasn't easy
but nothing i-is
No
(Wooooo hooooooo!)
When I feel heavy metal
(Wooooo hooooooo!)
And I'm pins and I'm needles
(Wooooo hooooooo!)
Well, I lie and I'm easy
All of the time but I am never sure
Why I need you
Pleased to meet you
I got my hair done
When I was young
It's not my problem
It's not my probleeemmm
(Wooooooooo hooooooo!!!)
When I feel heavy metal
(Wooooo hooooooo!)
And I'm pins and I'm needles
(Wooooo hooooooo!)
Well, I lie and I'm easy
All of the time but I am never sure
Why I need you
Pleased to meet you
Yeah yeah!
Yeah yeah!
Yeah yeah!
Oh yeah
17 There's No Other Way (02:35)
You're taking the fun
Out of everything
Making me run
When I don't want to think
You're taking the fun
Out of everything
I don't want to think at all
There's no other way
There's no other way
All that you can do
Is watch them play
You're taking the fun
Out of everything
You're making it clear
When I don't want to think
You're taking me up when
I dont want to go up anymore
I'm just watching it all
There's no other way
There's no other way
All that you can do
Is watch them play
I'll watch you play
18 The Universal (03:47)
This is the next century
Where the universals free
You can find it anywhere
Yes the future's been sold
Every night we're gone
And to Karaoke songs
How we like to sing along
Though the words are wrong
It really really really could happen
Yes it really really really could happen
When the days they seem to fall through you
Just let them go
No one here is alone
Satellites in every home
Yes the universals here
Here for everyone
Every paper that you read
Says tomorrow your lucky day
Well here's your lucky day
It really really really could happen
Yes it really really really could happen
When the days they seem to fall through you
Just let them go
Well it really really really could happen
Yes it really really really could happen
When the days they seem to fall through you
Just let them go
Just let them go
Just let them go
20 Parklife (03:03)
OOYY!!
Confidence is a preference
For the habitual voyeur
Of what is known as
(Parklife)
And morning soup can be avoided
If you take a route
Straight through what is known as
(Parklife)
John's got brewers droop he gets
Intimidated by the dirty pigeons
They love a bit of it
(Parklife)
Who's that gut lord marchin?
You should cut down on your porklife mate
Get some exercise
CHORUS:
All the people
So many people
And they all go hand in hand
Hand in hand through their parklife
Know what i mean?
I get up when i want except on wednesdays
When i get rudely awaken by the dustmen
(Parklife)
I put on my trousers on, have a cup of tea
And then think about leaving the house
(Parklife)
I feed the pigeons
I sometimes feed the sparrows too
It gives me a sense of enormous well being
(Parklife)
And then i'm happy for the rest of the day
Safe in the knowledge there will always
Be a bit of my heart devoted to it
CHORUS
Parklife (Parklife)
Parklife (Parklife)
Its got nothing to do with your
Vorsprung durch technique you know
And its not about you joggers
Who go round and round and round and round.....
CHORUS
21 End of a Century (02:40)
She says there's ants in the carpet
Dirty little monsters
Eating all the morsels
Picking up the rubbish
Give her effervescence
She needs a little sparkle
Good morning t.v.
You're lookin' so healthy
CHORUS:
We all say
Dont want to be alone
We wear the same clothes
'cause we feel the same
We kiss with dry lips
When we say goodnight
End of a century.. it's nothing special
Sex on the t.v.
Everybody's at it
And the mind gets dirty
As you get closer to thirty
He gives her a cuddle
Glowing in a huddle
Good night t.v.
Your all made up
You're looking like me
Chorus
Can... you... eat... her... yes... you... can...
Chorus x2
End of a century.. It's nothing specialx2
22 No Distance Left to Run (02:17)
It's over
You don't need to tell me
I hope you're with someone who makes you feel safe in your sleep.
Being tonight
I won't kill myself trying to stay in your life
I've got no distance left to run
When you see me
Please turn your back and walk away
I don't want to see you
Cos I know the dreams that you keep
That's where we meet
When you're coming down think of me
I got no distance left to run
Ohhhh, ohhhh, ohhhh, ohhhh, ohhhh, ohhhh
It's over
I knew it would end this way
I hope you're with someone who makes you feel that this life is a life
One that settles down
Stays around
Spends more time with you
I got no distance left to run
I'm coming home
So cold
Home
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Rivo
Ho sempre amato i Blur. Questo disco uscito il 5 maggio 2003 mi ha lasciato molto perplesso.
E continuerò a farlo, anche se questo disco proprio non mi va giù.
Di danieleerpiccoletto
Il risultato è piacevolmente sorprendente, i Blur sono cambiati ma sanno regalare ancora buona musica e delle emozioni.
Complessivamente un buon album, insolito e decisamente fuori dal comune per lo stile dei Blur.
Di Vivio
Ma se si continua nell’ascolto si capisce che non è affatto così, Think Tank è tutto tranne che un tentativo commerciale.
Il disco scivola giù liscio come l’olio dopo vari ascolti e sinceramente non se ne andrà facilmente dal vostro lettore CD.
Di Boop7
"Dov'è la canzone d'amore che ci rende liberi?"
"Non ho niente di cui aver paura"
