Chi è grande abbastanza la ricorderà con il padre Serge nell'(allora) scandaloso video di "Lemon Incest" oppure non avrà dimenticato il suo volto da lolita vagamente maudit sulla copertina del primo vero disco a suo nome, "Charlotte Forever", in cui interpretava brani composti del celebre genitore.
A vent'anni da quell'esordio discografico Charlotte Gainsbourg torna, dopo vari cameo in lavori altrui, con un nuovo album, "5:55", accompagnata questa volta da un parterre d'eccezione: il duo francese degli Air a comporre le musiche, Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy) e Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) a scrivere i testi e il celebrato Nigel Godrich (storico produttore di Radiohead e Rem, più recentemente al lavoro con Beck) a curare la produzione.
Dal canto suo la bella Charlotte ci mette, oltre al suo indubbio fascino e a quell'aria da personaggio trasgressivo, ma finemente charmant, un'interpretazione vocale minimale, un canto spesso quasi sussurrato e una voce fin troppo delicata che richiama innegabilmente quella dell'altro celebre genitore, la madre Jane Birkin, e che, ai meno avvezzi, potrà ricordare la Carla Bruni di "Quelqu'un m'a dit".
Gli Air, per quanto li riguarda, tentano qui di replicare il felice esperimento di "The Virgin Suicide", con atmosfere sonore sofisticate ed inquiete dal sapore vagamente ambient. Il tentativo riesce, ad onor del vero, solo in parte e non di rado i due indulgono nell'autocitazione fino a sfiorare l'autocelebrazione. Partiture per piano composte da cinque-sei note ripetute ad libitum su scale più alte o più basse, una sezione ritmica prevalentemente neutra e spalmata in modo uniforme lungo quasi tutto l'album, arrangiamenti di archi (e qui si sente la mano di Godrich) sontuosi e costantemente presenti, tanto che dopo pochi pezzi l'assuefazione ce ne fa persino dimenticare la presenza. Alcuni pezzi certo si distaccano da questo leit motiv: "The Operation" tenta di introdurre in qualche elemento di dub nelle ritmiche, mentre "The Song that We Sing" suona più scanzonatamente pop rispetto alla generale seriosità dell'album. Ma alla fine la sensazione prevalente è di un'opera votata in ogni suo singolo particolare al culto dell'hi-fi, una sorta di confezione extra-lusso in cui ognuno degli illustri partecipanti ha il timore di risultare meno "colto" degli altri.
In definitiva "5:55" è sicuramente l'album adatto per creare atmosfera durante gli aperitivi che organizzate nel vostro attico in centro o per rilassarsi durante i frequenti voli in business class cui vi costringe il vostro stressante lavoro, se rientrate in queste due categorie. Per tutti gli altri semplicemente un disco che darà un tocco snob alla vostra collezione, ma che faticherete ad estrarre dalla custodia per più di un paio di volte.
Elenco tracce testi e video
02 AF607105 (04:30)
Melancholy
aviation
chocolate
perfume
cigarettes
frequent flyer
stow away
dislocation
sleeping
jets
wave goodbye
feel homesick
tranquilizers
bill of fare
cry easy
dvt
disapear into thin air
chorus
we wish you all a very happy pleasant flight
this is a journey to the center of the night
and the inflight entertainment's out of sight
here on af 607105
time difference
you're waking
chase the sun into your eyes
sleeping cities
dust hotel rooms
passengers look to the skies
fly over
your lifetime
and never touching down
my heart
is breaking
somewhere over saskatchewan
chorus
we wish you all a very happy pleasant flight
this is a journey to the center of the night
and the inflight entertainment's out of sight
here on af 607105
your life in
the wrong hands
savannah and frozen wastes
the flight path
the wingspan
below the earth rotates
i love you
i miss you
i cannot see your face
invent a
new persona
drunk here on the edge of space
all the things i carry with me
and all the things i left behind
and all the things that wait to meet me
hover in the air tonight
if i can only keep on moving
and never stop and think of me
and freefall through the years and decades
terminal velocity
chorus
we hope you had a very happy pleasant flight
this is our final destination so goodnight
like a stone we are now falling from the sky
farewell from af 607105
the cabin
is burning
i smile and feel complete
here amongst
total strangers
27 000 feet
suspended
isolation
kids throw toy planes in the street
one final
blaze of glory
viewed from a window seat
03 The Operation (03:59)
I want to explore you
i'm gonna get under your skin
so you can feel me running through your veins
i want to examine
every inch of your frame
the pressure points that cause your joy and pain
our love goes under the knife
there is no room for doubt
now i'm inside you
my hands can feel their way
further inside than i have ever been
now i can really
mess around with your heart
and fill it to the brim with broken dreams
our love goes under the knife
two lives may be saved
and if i pull this off
i'll refuse the nobel prize
instead i will look into your eyes
if i pull this off your whole body will be mine
and i'm prepared to work throughout the night
our love goes under the knife
nothing is taboo
...here on the cutting edge of science
too much information
i feel i'm getting lost
absorbed into the fibre of your soul
deep within the abbatoir
of your entrails your insides
lost in you forever far from home
our love goes under the knife
someone got too close
our love goes under the knife
the heart was rejected by the host
06 Beauty Mark (03:06)
I've got a beauty mark
written on my skin
close to my heart
my favourite part
my beauty mark
I keep it out of sight
safe from the world outside
this old battle scar
this secret part
my beauty mark
this little death
this mark of sin
forever printed on my skin
I'll keep it for you
this hidden place
this private part
this secret door into my heart
I'll keep it for you
this precious jewel
this darling bud
this tiny reservoir of blood
my beauty mark
I'll keep it for you
10 Everything I Cannot See (05:45)
I feel you all around me
you are everything i cannot see
as the ocean crawls onto the shoreline
so you lap at the edges of me
and now, as i'm walking
i know that you're watching me move
for as much as i need you
i must walk away from you
you're my life, you're my hope
you're the chain, you're the rope
you're my god, you're my hell
you're the sky, you're myself
you're the reason i'm living
you're all that i have to discover
you're the rain, you're the stars
you're so near, you're so far
you're my friend, you're my foe
you're the miles left to go
you are everything i ever wanted
and you are my lover
so i carry i carry the flowers
the flowers that are dead in my hands
they will rise up at the very sight of you
they will naturally understand
that today is the day
that we find out once and for all
now you know i must leave here
you must let me stand or fall
you're my life, you're my hope
you're the chain, you're the rope
you're my god, you're my hell
you're the sky, you're myself
you're the reason i'm living
you're all that i have to discover
you're the rain, you're the stars
you're so near, you're so far
you're my friend, you're my foe
you're the miles left to go
you are everything i ever wanted
and you are my lover
if i leave will you follow can i put my faith in you
you're my life, you're my hope
you're the chain, you're the rope
you're my god, you're my hell
you're the sky, you're myself
you're the reason i'm living
you're all that i have to discover
you're the rain, you're the stars
you're so near, you're so far
you're my friend, you're my foe
you're the miles left to go
you are everything i ever wanted
and you are my lover
and i love you now
as i loved you then
but this island life
just had to end
but you will allways be
my special friend
i will carry you with me
and we can love again
now the drizzle
soaks us to the skin
and the stars hang like a noose
so let's face this together
now this storm is finally though
you're my life, you're my hope
you're the chain, you're the rope
you're my god, you're my hell
you're the sky, you're myself
you're the reason i'm living
you're all that i have to discover
you're the rain, you're the stars
you're so near, you're so far
you're my friend, you're my foe
you're the miles left to go
you are everything i ever wanted
and you are my lover
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Altre recensioni
Di Torre Ste
Un album della figlia di uno dei più importanti cantautori che la Francia abbia mai avuto: Serge Gainsbourg.
Interpretando i quarantadue minuti di musica senza una sbavatura e non rovinando gli undici pezzi.
Di O__O
La voce delicata della miss si libra come una nipote di Carla Bruni, ma molto più intonata e a suo agio.
Carezzevole, appassionante, struggente ma anche ripetitivo e anonimo: resta la copertina da mettere in primo piano sulla libreria di dischi in camera mia.
Di O__O
Una canzone impregnata di un mood quasi alieno, di un ritmo ipnotico, che permea nella pelle.
Fottutamente bellissima.
