CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES: LACRIME E SANGUE
A vent'anni di distanza dal suo precedente lavoro "Charlotte Forever", nata dalla mente geniale di un Serge Gainsbourg in piena creatività schizofrenica, Charlotte Gainsbourg si concede il bis, d'altronde anche Peter Gabriel ci ha impiegato dieci anni per dare il seguito di "Us". In tutta quella parentesi temporale che divide il primo album dal secondo Charlotte si è trasformata: è diventata una donna, un'attrice. Stupenda nella sua esile ed elegante silhouette con un viso che ricorda una Patti Smith più femminile e sensuale, Charlotte ha le carte in regola per divenire un sex symbol.
Ed ecco che in questo nuovo capitolo discografico la Gainsbourg s'improvvisa una chanteuse francese di gran classe, accompagnata da un tripudio di ospiti con i lustri e le stelline (Nigel Goldrich, gli Air, Jarvis Cocker). L'attesa si faceva strepitante e ricca di fascino. Quell'oggetto misterioso chiamato "5:55" continuava ad attirare la mia attenzione, sin dalla sua uscita, ma solo pochi giorni fa lo comprai a scatola chiusa, attratto più che altro da una copertina molto sensuale e dal prezzo stracciato. Mal che vada...
L'atmosfera iniziale è già deviante: quelle due pecore nere "5:55" e "AF605107" poste in apertura, una dietro all'altra straniscono perchè sembrano copie carbone degli Air. Non c'è il ben che minimo arrangiamento o un passaggio sonoro che possa invitarti a dire "Ah Beh! Questa è Charlotte Gainsbourg! Lo si capisce subito!". Non sono male ma stancano, con i loro paesaggi lunari, le melodie oriniche e plananti, il pianoforte tanto per condire. La voce delicata della miss si libra come una nipote di Carla Bruni, ma molto più intonata e a suo agio.
Quando pensi che poi il disco possa decollare verso arrangiamenti diversi, ti sbagli: "The Operator" è l'ennesima parata elettro-orinica del duo elettronico francese. A Charlotte piace tanto miagolare. Accarezza, affascina, seduce, ma non molla, non osa, non si libera.
L'unico momento di fosforo è dato dalla stupefacente "The Song That We Sing", una bella e semplice ballata tra acustica ed elettronica glitch. I testi, poeticissimi fanno venire quasi le lacrime (da leggere la notevole ode al neo della bellezza di "Beauty Mark"), ma le melodie sono così ripetitive e anonime da mettere quasi il sorriso.
"5.55" scorre leggero e carezzevole, movimentato solo da poche velocizzazioni ritmiche... mi addormento, risvegliato solo sul finale da due bei pezzi davvero sensuali, ma anche originali come "Everything I cannot see", con il pianoforte in primo piano e "Morning Song", l'unica canzone scritta interamente dalla bella Gainsbourg.
Carezzevole, appassionante, struggente ma anche ripetitivo e anonimo: resta la copertina da mettere in primo piano sulla libreria di dischi in camera mia.
E io che mi aspettavo una nuova "Lemon Incest"...
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
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Kid_A
Una sorta di confezione extra-lusso in cui ognuno degli illustri partecipanti ha il timore di risultare meno “colto” degli altri.
Un disco che darà un tocco snob alla vostra collezione, ma che faticherete ad estrarre dalla custodia per più di un paio di volte.
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
Una canzone impregnata di un mood quasi alieno, di un ritmo ipnotico, che permea nella pelle.
Fottutamente bellissima.
