• Voto:
Voglio sbilanciarmi, sò che probabilmente esagererò, sbaglierò, ma lo devo fare: "Skunkworks" è uno degli album più interessanti della carriera solistica di Dickinson. Non è una presa di posizione la mia, ma voglio ribadire con tutto il cuore che non si può andare contro a un lavoro del genere.
"Skunkworks" non nasce come un semplice album, ma come un progetto vero e proprio, in cui vengono coinvolti alla chitarra Alex Dickson, al basso Chris Dale e alla batteria l'italiano Alessandro Elena (non è un caso che Bruce abbia composto una B-sides intitolata "I'm In A Band With An Italian Drummer"...). L'ex vocalist degli Iron Maiden voleva tentare di infondere un sound alla sua band che tagliasse totalmente i legami col suo passato musicale: canzoni dalla minima durata; assoli che non costituiscono un momento di virtuosismo di Dickson, ma facenti parte integrante della struttura dei singoli pezzi; testi ridotti a poche righe. Era palese ed ovvio che a tutti i Maideniani non sarebbe andata giù la cosa, facendo risultare così "Skunkworks" come un clamoroso flop commerciale. Ma certamente non sono le vendite a decretare la qualità di un buon album. Come è accaduto a "Chameleon" degli Helloween, ci troviamo di fronte a un album da riascoltare e da rivalutare.
Con questo album Dickinson sembra fondere in una commistione tutta personale Metal e Grunge/Indie, rendendo questo lavoro uno dei più originali della sua carriera solista. Si parte con una delle canzoni più leggere del disco, "Space Race", quasi un anticamera per le seguenti tracce: "Back From The Edge" ci butta subito nella mischia, con chitarre che si alternano creando un bellissimo effetto stereo e dando più suggestione alla canzone; "Inertia" invece è diretta, rabbiosa, un vero e proprio schiaffo in faccia; "Faith" è sicuramente la canzone più hard rock-oriented, con un riff graffiante e un assolo semplice ma che và a far parte perfettamente con l'anima della canzone. "Solar Confinment" è stupenda, a mio avviso la canzone migliore del disco: purtroppo il primo punto d'arresto lo subiamo con "Dreamstate" e "I Will Not Accept The Truth", probabilmente le meno originali e brillanti dell'intero lavoro di Dickinson. Tranquilli: "Inside The Machine", "Headswitch" e "Meltdown" ci fanno ancora una volta capire perchè quest'album è degno di lode! Veloci, non scontate, adrenaliniche: sembrano questi gli ingredienti principali per il concepimento delle canzoni di "Skunkworks". Concludono il nostro viaggio "Octavia", una semi-ballad molto orecchiabile, la potente "Innerspace" e "Strange Death In Paradise", che porta con sè alcuni echi del passato del vocalist, e risulta essere una delle canzoni più articolate dell'album.
Prendete in mano il cd. Mettetelo nello stereo o nel vostro walkman. Premete play e rigustatevelo, tenendo in mente che questo non è il solito Bruce, che questo non è ne "The Chemical Wedding", ne "Accident Of Birth", che questo non è il solito album Heavy Metal con un sound uguale ai Maiden: questo è il primo e ultimo lavoro degli "Skunkworks", progetto nato e morto nel 1996. L'abbiamo ucciso noi ascoltatori. Lunga vita agli Skunkworks.
Elenco tracce e testi
03 Inertia (03:03)
These are the pictures, these are the feelings from the frontline
Living in silence, feeling the deafness like heavy smoke
Smiling with strangers, counting the days like a spring coiled up inside
Welcome to your future, welcome to your book of lies
Fingers crawl through pages, nothing changes
Living here...
Inertia � no wish to move at all
Inertia � everthing�s a stone wall
Inertia � history lets you die
A ragged pile of silent accusers, smell the blood of strangers here
No eyes, no ears, no smell, no taste, the mouth of the maggot is full of this place
Murdered conscience, the pressure is crushing heads, like paper lanterns now
Unbreakable grip, a dead hand driving us forward to the end
Kicking through the traces, a thousand years from now...
Inertia � no wish to think at all
Inertia � everthing�s a stone wall
Inertia � history lets you die
Inertia � no wish to move at all
Inertia � everthing�s a stone wall
Inertia � history lets you die
06 Dreamstate (03:49)
Well you bred me
Well you fed me
Well you made me what I am
Sometihng for nothing
Good for nothing
well...
It's a dreamstate, a dreamstate
To kill me with kindness you'll just have to wait
You say I'm nothing
You say I'm nothing
Never gonna be something well then
that's the life for me
your expectations
your reservation
aw, c'mon please...
It's a dreamstate, a dreamstate
You bought into the vision so you don't have to wait
A dreamstate of bliss
A dreamstate of bliss
A dreamstate...
Now I'm standing up here before the judge
Juries got their head where the sun don't shine
everybody's lying on my case
they're lying on me
lying on me...
lying on me...
lying on my case
Eyes above me, eyes above me
Never realised there was someone
Else in here
No resolution
And no conclusion
Do I believe?
In a dreamstate, a dreamstate...
You fell for it sucker, you fell for the bait
A dreamstate of bliss
A dreamstate of bliss
A dreamstate
09 Headswitch (02:14)
What would induce you to swear your allegiance to God, tonight?
Joined at the hip to a million-volt switch of the light � alright
You want to find out, what the planet�s about
Falling from grace leaves a cool empty space in the sky...
Your eyes are black as they see the red ball of the sun,
and they're blind
Dribbling with come as the volts start to arc through your mind
Cruel, but it's kind
Like father, like son, chop off the head and the body lives on
Falling from grace leaves a cool empty space in the sky...
Like father, like son, chop off the head and the body lives on
Heaven that made you has screwed you and laughed
Falling from grace leaves a cool empty space in the sky...
10 Meltdown (04:34)
Hey, you wait, cringing in the dark, you create what you always fear
A puppet of hatred, dishing out poison
You use me for bait, your begging bowl of lies,
chain letters of sniveling compromise
I can smell the difference, your truth and your fiction, you and your
Twisted convictions
Were you my friend when I belonged?
Were you my friend when I was strong?
Were you my friend when I was weak?
Were you my friend when I was crawling, calling...out of my head?
Cold, like your blood, the snake is always cool
When things get tough, you slither on the ground
You cover up your tracks when I'm around
It's over now my friend, your dog has had its day
It's payback time for what you had to say
You're stuck with the life you made,
Stuck with the plans you made
Stuck with everything you are
Were you my friend when I belonged?
Were you my friend when I was strong?
Were you my friend when I was weak?
Were you my friend when I was crawling, calling...out of my head?
Everything's gonna happen now, everything's gonna happen now
Everything's gonna happen now, everything's gonna happen now
Were you my friend when I belonged?
Were you my friend when I was strong?
Were you my friend when I was weak?
Were you my friend when I was crawling, calling...out of my head?
Crawling, calling, out of my head
Crawling, calling, out of my head
12 Innerspace (03:32)
I see the scars of action all writhing 'round your face
Too much inactivity and home�s a lonely place
Throw away your beauty, �cos you know that it won't last
Throw away your present, you've been living in the pas
Come on, take a trip with me
Across the bridge of lunacy
Fire up some beast and ride the skywaves
I've thrown away my images, they're all so distant now
Discovery was a stranger then, welcome to my house
Whatever demons torture me, I love them like a friend
Nothing lasts forever but the certainty of change
I'd rather move around and be, than figure out life and what it means
Fire up some beast and ride the skywaves
Don't wanna waste my time on you, if you can't travel this way too
Fire up some beast, we'll ride the skywaves
And when the fireball�s work is done
and we are part of the nuclear one
The whole damn thing begins again
Our glory days have just begun
A fiery sideslip, then we're gone
I'll see ya monday morning
Anyway, I'm coming back
Anyway, I'm coming back
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