Dopo aver ascoltato i Desaparecidos e aver cercato qualche informazione sulla band ti rendi subito conto di quale sia il loro più grande difetto: hanno avuto una vita troppo breve. Forse doveva andare così, però non si può non ammettere il dispiacere. Sia chiaro, non stiamo parlando di una band trascendentale, di quelle di cui la Storia della Musica aveva eccessivo bisogno, però quando un gruppo è riuscito è sempre meglio se continua a stare in circolazione, no?
La band, originaria del Nebraska (U.S.A.), ha suonato dal 2001 al 2002 e poi si è fermata, salvo fare una comparsata nel 2010 per un solo concerto americano. Il motivo fondamentale della breve durata del gruppo sta nel fatto che si è trattato di uno dei vari progetti paralleli di Conor Oberst, cantante e chitarrista dei Bright Eyes, fondati da Oberst stesso e dediti ad un Folk-Indie-Rock parecchio apprezzato, soprattutto dal popolo internettiano. Assieme a lui nei Desaparecidos altri 5 musicisti (di cui due sono i bassisti, che si danno il cambio) tra cui Denver Dalley, che nel 2003 ha fondato gli Statistics, band Emo-Rock sotto contratto con la Jade Tree Records.
Ma veniamo all'album, dopo la necessaria introduzione. "Read Music/Speak Spanish" è un disco piacevole, che scorre via tranquillo, canzone dopo canzone, lasciando diverse melodie incollate nella testa dell'ascoltatore, che poi sarà costretto a canticchiarle con tanto di sorriso (ebete) stampato sulla faccia. Il sound proposto è un Emo ben suonato con tocchi di Post-Hardcore “smussato” dalle tastiere quasi-sempre-presenti, piazzate lì come a far da freno pop ad un sound che talvolta potrebbe incattivirsi troppo per i gusti della band (io ne sarei stato felice!). Conor Oberst si mette alla prova: abituato ad un cantato tranquillo e intimo con i suoi Bright Eyes, qui fa quello un po' inca**ato per davvero, come richiesto dal genere, e vi riesce abbastanza bene, in una maniera che sembra spontanea, naturale, non forzata. Sentire per credere brani come “Manana” o “Greater Omaha”, tra quelli più fortunati dell'intero album. Gli altri musicisti (il già citato Denver Alley, Landon Hedges, Ian McElroy e Matt Baum) fanno un'ottima figura, creando un suono fresco, per niente spigoloso e che non sa di copia-incollato da qualche altra band.
"Read Music/Speak Spanish" presenta in totale 9 canzoni nella versione originale (quella che ho ascoltato io) e 10 in quella internazionale. I Desaparecidos fecero uscire un solo singolo estratto da quest'album, “The Happiest Place on Earth” nel 2001, pezzo carino ma che stenta a partire. Personalmente preferisco altre canzoni, come ad esempio le sopracitate “Manana” e “Greater Omaha” e poi “Man and Wife, the Latter (Damaged Goods)”. Però in fondo mi piacciono parecchio anche “Survival of the Fittest/It'sa Jungle Out There” e “Man and Wife, The Former (Financial Planning)”, tutte incentrate sulla tematica che la fa da padrone nell'intero album: la critica al sistema di vita occidentale, specialmente americano, tutto incentrato sul consumo e sul denaro e che non sa guardare oltre alle attrazioni materiali. Questo ci canta il caro Oberst.
Il momento più debole dell'album trovo che sia “Mall of America”, troppo pasticciata dal tastierone di McElroy, che comunque anche in altri brani a volte si fa prendere un po' la mano. Ovviamente dipende dai gusti, ma a me nell'Emo che risente del Post-Hardcore le tastiere troppo invadenti non piacciono tanto, come si sarà capito... Ma nonostante questo il disco è consigliabile un po' a tutti, visto che non si tratta di un album troppo impegnativo o di quelli apprezzabili solo dagli amanti del genere.
Certo che, Oberst, potevi anche provare a mandarlo avanti questo progetto...
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 What's New for Fall (03:46)
Into corduroys or jeans,
chinos or capris
Sweater vest no sleeves,
oxford underneath
Or whatever you think
I mean whatever's gonna make you want me
C'mon and dress me
I'll be your mannequin
Make me attractive
So sexy and thin
I will stand still, pose me
In any position
And when the people pass by the window
I'll be adored by them
I want to be one
Of the boys from the catalogues
That you flip through
You'll point and say "he's the one"
(Lick your finger turn the page slick gloss over images)
And you waste no time deciding
You crab the credit card and
Call, start ordering
But what's new for fall by spring means nothing
I want to undress you
In your walk-in closet
After you try on
One of your new outfits
I know that six months later
You won't be caught dead in it
But for that moment you're there
With your shape hanging everywhere
And it looks perfect, oh just perfect
I don't think she likes me, not with this new haircut
I don't think she likes me, I shouldn't eat so much
X3
05 Man and Wife, the Latter (Damaged Goods) (03:39)
I'm growing out my hair like it was when I was single
It was longer than I'd known you, I had no money then
I had no worries then at all
But with such a high standard of living I just feel like I am dying
I would start an argument but you can barely even talk
But there is always good reason for your silence
You have to take care of some business
So I fix your plate and I stay out of the way
And you will stay like that forever, right in front of your computer
You'll look up one day but you won't recognize me
So now you want to change
You read a letter from a lawyer
Want to take me out to dinner
Want to bury me under a mound of shopping bags
Like it would really make a difference or make up for your disinterest
I'm a bill you pay, I'm a contract you can't break
And it is like I'm under water or on an endless escalator
I just go up and up but I don't ever reach the top
And it reads just like the bible, twenty centuries of scandal
I guess it all depends on how you interpret it
The word is LOVE
The word is LOSS
The words are DAMAGED GOODS
That is what I am
A lifetime gets chalked-up to an experience, coincidence
We are chained to the events
That's it
06 Mall of America (02:41)
They say its murder on your folk career to make a rock record with the disappeared we'll let the police helicopters pull stereos out of the lake there is not an image that I must defend. There are no art forms now just capitalism so send the national guard to the mall of america and they can dress dead bodies up in tight designer jeans diesel prada it looks good it looks good yeah it does I'm gonna lie down with a common sound I'm gonna bury my blues so its never found I'm gonna learn to pay attention to the television sets and if my sadness needs a catalyst I'll just uncover my eyes so much stimulus. And at the shopping epicenter I have an agoraphobic fit so buy a fountain soda put some sugar on my tongue I'll wake up and write some songs with no soul with no soul
07 The Happiest Place on Earth (03:02)
want to pledge allegiance to the country where I live
I don't want to be ashamed to be American
But opportunity no, it don't exist
It's the opiate of the populace
We need some harder shit now
The truth is getting around
And each public school is a halfway house
Where the huddled masses sober up and up enough
There's not enough to fatten the cows
And feed all of us
It's just a rationing of luck
What can't be bought gets raffled off
Oh God good God shed greed on thee
Your shining sea turned a dirty green
From the industry off the shores of New Jersey
I got a letter from the army
So I think that I'll enlist
I'm not brave or proud of nothing
I just want to kill something
Too bad that now-a-days you just point and click
Swing low satellite
Hot white chariot!
In the computer's blue glare
The bombs burst in the air
There was a city once now nothing is there
Our freedom comes at their expense
It makes sense does it dollars and centers
They're stretching barbed wire across the picket fence
That is surrounding your housing development
Just in case you lack the confidence
Oh God my God give strength to thee
These amber waves purple majesty
Are nothing but backdrops for Disney
We'll look up close
It is superimposed on a blank blue screen
It is fantasy fucking magical
The dreams floats like a chemical
Through each snapped synapse our television past
That is beautiful no more, no more
08 Survival of the Fittest / It's a Jungle Out There (02:56)
He hides in his suit like a snake in the grass his sales pitch fork tongue hissed now the wolves wear their name tags they are hunting in packs herding their prey up the aisles and back they're smiling their teeth are showing while the doctors and lawyers like vultures descend they swoop down to the scene of the car accident to pick the victims to pieces then there is the sly fox makes his money telescamming notch babies he says the end is near buy my policy I'll make you young again I'll make you young again take the cash from my hand hear the register sing and the roar of the lion logo on the screen he's hungry I should buy some popcorn so I exit the dark feeling blind in the sun and the bobcats look tired they ate their fill of asphalt because we need more parking with so many up at the pulpit rams and bugs the news cameras capture guerilla warfare eagles into buildings crash landed despair is all that there is now in a cubical cage that smells like a rat whose smile gets bigger along with your debt don't take it personal its just business
10 Hole in One (03:08)
the man at the bank said oh lets not talk percentage you work a fourteen hour day and still have two mortgages you asked the start for aid and they gave you an ad campaign that didn't help so you took your family and joined in the urban sprawl now you can't see the stars as well but you're near the mall you don't know where you stand no more in line at some convenient store that is way too long you used to work your land fed thousands of mouth now you ear their shit for the money now you emptied your heart to fill your bank account well I should talk I'm just the same you can buy my records down at the corporate chain I tell myself I shouldn't be ashamed but I am so adolescence made her an activist now she is the one who does all the lecturing those assholes got their eighteen holes you should have told them to dig one more your dream is dead she won't eat their food or wear their clothes she always wants to know where her money goes but will shell it out for filling up her nose so run it up i'll run my mouth but never mind the shit that I sing about because I'd sell myself to buy a f**king house twelve thousand square foot four car garage tennis court and swimming pool in the back yard I know it can seem like a lot but that is why I pay someone to clean it up we'll gonna clean it up my big house
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