Seppure ci troviamo di fronte ad un personaggio come Courtney Love, che è essa stessa, un pezzo di storia del Rock, credo che un buon approccio ad un disco debba comunque essere caratterizzato da un atteggiamento privo di pregiudizi o aspettative, e da disposizione intelligente a capire il messaggio (qualora ce ne fosse uno) dell’autore.
Dico questo perché spesso (per non dire ‘sempre’) si parla della Love senza conoscere il suo lato artistico, e perché in questa recensione voglio parlare solo di musica, non di pettegolezzi. Il disco inizia con Mono, sferzante inno che fa da giusto proemio all’album: definizione della poetica, scelte stilistiche, polemica musicale, recusatio degli ideali spacciati come prioritari per una del suo livello… il succo dell’intero disco è proprio Mono, che definirei una sorta di autobiografia di Courtney. Per quanto riguarda il resto del cd, ad un primo ascolto le canzoni sono proprio scoraggianti sia a livello tecnico che concettuale.
Non siamo ovviamente, ai livelli delle Hole, ma ascoltandolo con attenzione, alla fine emerge Courtney in tutta se stessa, in tutto il suo spirito e la sua anima. Echi delle Hole si sentono in Sunset strip, All the drugs, Hello… e il suo animo tormentato riaffiora in disperate ballads come Hold on to me, Uncool, Never gonna be the same, dense di pathos. In questo album, troviamo anche un tema nuovo per la Love, che definirei ‘metamusica’, cioè musica fatta con altra musica o musica che parla della musica stessa come materia. La Love infatti, vuole parlare di musica, della musica attuale, della scena Rock e della rovina di esso… così, per mettere i puntini sulle i: il nu rock non è Rock, sono solo ragazzini che fanno i fighetti giocando con le chitarre elettriche, e se la prende col malcapitato Julian Casablancas degli Strokes, che tra l’altro lei apprezza. Ma non è questo il punto.
Il punto è che il Rock è diventato, ormai, solo citazionismo: chi imita quello stile, chi un altro… davvero non c’è stato più niente di originale dopo il grunge. E qui, anche Courtney si mette a fare, per così dire, citazioni: Life despite God, pezzo geniale dove riprende Janis Joplin o I’ll do anything che ricorda nell’intro Smells like teen spirit… per quanto Hello potrebbe sembrare, a malincuore, un pezzo delle Donnas. Dopo questa lezione di storia del Rock, l’album finisce con Never gonna be the same, che secondo me rappresenta, a livello concettuale, la miglior canzone da lei scritta. Parla della vita, delle persone, della sincerità, del rispetto e dell’autenticità… no, Courtney non si è venduta facendo questo commerciale disco con la Virgin e facendo eco allo pseudo-indie rock di questi tempi… lei, oltre al livello fenomenico, rimarrà sempre lei, fedele a se stessa… sono le contingenze e le persone che cambiano e sempre cambieranno.
Nonostante questo album sottolinei non poche cadute di livello (e qui si sente l’assenza della famiglia Geffen Records), non si può fare torto alla Love, con quella voce che sembra toglierti le tue parole di bocca, con quella disarmante logica pessimistica e menefreghista di chi sa già cosa c’è dietro… di chi è cresciuto, ha capito ed è certo: il Rock è morto.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Mono (03:39)
Hey yeah we had everything
Vinyl in mono
And we looked the other way
Man we were so dumb
Is this the part in the book that you wrote
Where I gotta come and save the day
Did you miss me
Did you miss me
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Well they say that rock is dead
And they're probably right
99 girls in the pit
Did it have to come to this?
Oh God you owe me one more song
So I can prove to you that
I'm so much better than him
Oh god please listen fast
Here comes the crash
We're gonna rise above
We gotta smash it up
You won't abandon us again
Give us brilliant boys we wanna fuck, man
Full of ecstasy, hard drugs and bad luck
Yeah yeah yeah
Turn the lights back on
You burn so hard
But you won't burn long
Three chords in your pocket tonight
Are you, you the one
With the spark to bring my punk rock back
(I don't think so)
Oh God I wanna hear you say
I wanna hear you say, that you're sorry again
Oh God you owe me one more song
So I can prove to you
That I'm so much better than him
Oh God I'd give you anything
To hear you say that I was right
And you were wrong
Oh God before I leave this life
Enable us to love,
A hooker's never gonna come
Just give it back to me
Blow out all of the lights tonight
Oh yeah
Drive a million miles down the PCH
(And now he's gone)
I slashed his tires, I bled his brakes
(It had to be done)
Their hand-job lives were just too cruel
(But) mercy was done
We drowned them all in their swimming pools
Run away, run away, run away yeah
Oh God I wanna hear you say
I wanna hear you say that you were wrong again
Oh God I wanna hear you say
I wanna hear you say that
That I'm so much better than him
Oh God you owe us one more song
Get out of my life
See this world as it really is
Is it just a sad slide show
Can you make a hooker cum?
And enable us to love
I need one thing that's divine
Let me hear it tonight
Let me hear it tonight
I've gotta hear it tonight
You're gonna let me hear the lost chord tonight
yeah
03 Hold On to Me (03:45)
Hey this life is never fair
The angels that you need are never there
oh but, sometimes he comes to me
in the dead of winter dead of night
hes all that i can see
Hold on to me ahh ahh
Hold on to me ahh ahh
hold on to me, yeah eh yeAh
hold on to me
We all get our Glory
our little bit of fame
but theres no truth at the heart of any of it
just the brilliance and the passion and the bitterness remainds
He brings me down
Oh, down into the ground
I never will get ah-ya ah-ya ya-out
Hush your highness don't you breath
No, baby hold me in your arms i'm shivering
But whats all this for,
If i was the battle baby you have won the war
I'll protect you from the night, it will never fall
I'll protect you from the truth, won't hear it at all
I am the center of the universe, yeah i am the truth
and i'm the pain that you feel, yeah i felt it for you
I am the center of the universe
I am the center of the universe
When youre in the whirlpool, and they try to suck you in
remember you aren't gonna die until you are out of life
and when you think youre drowning baby i could always swim
Oh, how he brings me down
Oh, down into the ground
I never will get ahya ah-ya ya-out
I never will get ahya ah-ya ya-out
Hush your highness don't you leave
No baby hold me in your arms I'm shivering
But whats all that for
If i was the battle baby you
and If i was the battle baby you
if i was the battle baby you have won the war
05 All the Drugs (04:31)
The devil's driving my car tonigh and he's drunk
He's pissed he's mad
I don't care wich of you
He fucks up
I've played with fire
And the matches they are burning still in my hand
They can try to shut me up
They never will
They never will again
with all the drugs
with all the drugs
with all the drugs in the world
you can't shut up that girl
Theres no one in this bed
Obliterate the truth
Coz theres no lies
That I could be and you would need
with all the drugs
with all the drugs
but there's all the drugs in the world
but there's all the drugs in the world
you can't shut up that girl
with all all of my money
with all all of my love
with all all of my money
It doesn't feel as good
as the drugs
with all the drugs in the world
you can't shut up that girl
with all the drugs in the world
with all the drugs in the world
Gonna burn out every inch of you
Oh baby I'll burn you till the lights all die
You'll never ever ever fuck like me
So baby why why do you even try
Generation it has slipped away
Oh baby leave no trace of it behind
Steal the power of the powerful men
And baby leave here with me leave here tonight
07 I'll Do Anything (03:01)
Gimme your tired
Gimme your poor, yeah
Yearning to be free, yeah
Your hungry huddled masses
Screaming me me me
Gimme danger
Gimme sorrow
Gimme heat
Gimme grime [grind?]
Gimme, gimme everything
Come and gimme from behind
Woo hoo
Throw me up against the wall
Woo hoo
No baby, do that again
Woo hoo
No baby, I'll do you cause
You, you, you, you do anything
Gimme white boys skinny
Gimme big black men
Gimme ice cream on my birthday
Gimme that again
Gimme love, love, love
Oh, give them me, me, me
Cause I'll do you
Cause you'll do anything
Gimme dick
Gimme speed
Gimme white hot heat
One day my prince will come but
Man, it's just too late
Gimme one match
So I can set myself on fire
I'll let 'em eat cake
Until they are starved
Gimme white lies
That pulls out of me so hard
Twist it like the miracles
And blast your heart to shards
Woo hoo
Throw me up against the wall
Woo hoo
No baby, do that again
Woo hoo
No baby, I'll do you cause
You, you, you, you do anything
Gimme white boys skinny
Gimme big black men
Gimme ice cream on my birthday
Gimme that again
Gimme love, love, love
Oh, give them me, me, me
Cause I'll do you
Cause you'll do anything
Gimme some last solutions
Give it to your head
Give it to me
Come on baby
Give it and pray
You're a star
It's your show
I've got the power to heal
Oh, god or the Devil
Just gimme a deal
Gimme love, love, love
Oh, give them me, me, me
Cause I'll do you
Cause you'll do anything
I'm ready to die for you
No, I'm too young to be so old
Don't scratch the car when you go
(Woo hoo)
(Throw me up against the wall)
Don't slam the door when you go
(Woo hoo)
(No baby, do that again)
I'll burn the sheets when you go
(Woo hoo)
(No baby, I'll do you cause)
Just fuckin' go when you go when you go
(You, you, you, you do anything)
Just fuckin' go
08 Uncool (04:37)
Pretty faces grab the headlines
You leave me nothing but my name
And all the grief keeps multiplying
And I pretend to feel no pain
Never gonna lose, baby
If I tell the truth
Would I be uncool
If I could write a love song?
I just wanna believe
You tried to hold me
Spend our whole life
Now i feel so lost
I get tired of the pleasure
My company's so cheap
Baby, take me from this tempest
Take me someplace so I can sleep
(Sleep, sleep)
I don't wanna die and I don't wanna live
Baby, I just want a chance to be with you
I tried, oh, I love you
I swear to god I never felt so alive
Never gonna lose
If I tell the truth
Would it be uncool
If I could write a love song?
I just wanna believe
You tried to hold me
And every time you move
And everytime you breathe
Yeah, I gotta write a love song
Baby, you're a freakshow just like me
Baby, we're all born ugly
Gotta write a love song
Gonna make you cry, I'm gonna go so deep
Tear the world up
Somemewhere I can sleep
And I wonder why
And I wonder why
And I cry
Wanna be uncool
Wanna be uncool
Now I'm gonna make you cry
'Cause I'm gonna go so deep
I'm gonna tear this tempest, baby
And go somewhere I can sleep
Gonna make you love me
Gonna make you love me
Yeah
Never gonna lose
If I tell the truth
Would it be uncool
If I could write a love song?
I just wanna believe
You tried to hold me
And every time you move
And everytime you breathe
Yeah, I gotta write a love song
Baby, you're a freakshow just like me
Baby, we're all born ugly
Gotta write a love song
Gonna make you cry, I'm gonna go so deep
Tear the world up
Somewhere I can sleep
I wanna write a love song
Wanna be uncool
Wanna be uncool
I wanna write a love song
Wanna be uncool
Wanna be uncool
I wanna write a love song
Wanna be uncool
Wanna be uncool
I'm gonna be uncool
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Altre recensioni
Di scott
Dodici tracce che scorrono via in modo sterile caratterizzate tutte dagli stessi accordi e dallo stesso ritmo di batteria.
Un disco elementare e decisamente scontato, frutto a mio avviso del gusto per il denaro di una quarantenne che ha ormai capito che tra un paio di anni non si potrà più spogliare per vendere la sua musica.
Di SilverInRehab
«Un album in cui a detta della stessa Love, dentro ci ha messo tutta se stessa e si sente.»
«L’album regala emozioni anche se purtroppo non convince del tutto proprio perché si sente la mancanza del suo ex gruppo.»
