• Voto:
Il primo disco dei Gin Blossoms, come avvenne per tante bands soprattutto negli anni novanta, è un lavoro inizialmente passato del tutto inosservato e riproposto in un secondo momento dalla major di turno. Autoprodotto e sottoprodotto, pressoché circolante nei soli dintorni di Tempe, Arizona, è la conferma delle intuizioni pervenute all'ascolto di "New Miserable Experience". Qui siamo tre anni prima, la line up è sempre quella ma è il marchio di fabbrica a non esserci ancora. Il ché rende questo disco meno smaccatamente preconfezionato per l'heavy rotation, ma anche di qualità (non solo sonora) lievemente inferiore.
Se "Lost Horizons", "Found Out About You" e "Hey Jealousy" viaggiano al doppio della velocità rispetto alle loro versioni in "New Miserable Experience" (le ultime due saranno singoli di buon successo), la melodia non marcata di "Found Out About You" qui perde moltissimo, sacrificata sull'altare del ritmo, e lo stile esecutivo di tutti e tre i brani è decisamente inferiore: pagano dazzi salati ai Byrds in quegli infiniti arpeggi e jingle jangle vari.
Se in "New Miserable Experience" si sentivano assolie sfuriate, qui le parti di chitarra si moltiplicano, gli assoli si duplicano, per non parlare di questo continuo scampanare di chitarre! Se c'erano delle parti di batteria che non erano proprie del genere musicale, qui è tutta una rullata. Il basso, poi, viaggia al doppio per volume, numero di note e velocità d'esecuzione.
I solos, poi, in brani non certo imprevedibili come "Something Wrong", "Idiot Summer" o "Slave Dealers Daughter", è indiscutibilmente la parte migliore della canzone.
La mancanza di produzione vede "Cajun Song" perdere le fisarmoniche ed acquisire la solita Rickenbecker, trasformando la sagra in una anonima e sciatta serata per ubriaconi dentro a un locale country western. Bene quando si accelera un altro pochetto in più del solito ("Keli Richards"); meno bene quando si rallenta più del solito per scartare certe caramelle root, come in "Slave Dealers Daughter", sebbene arrivi il salvifico assolo di sempre.
La forma, in tutti i brani, è più o meno la stessa: le strofe quasi sempre più orecchiabili dei ritornelli, le liriche che si esauriscono in fretta, gli spazi strumentali ampi, le sonorità tradizionali che stanni assieme ai gusti alternativi: una versione punk dei Byrds, al cotempo fuori da canoni intellettual-collegiali di Athens, e piuttosto dntro quelli operai e stradaioli di Minneapolis.
La produzione in pieno stile major dell'album successivo ha aumentasto la fruibilità dei brani facendone però perdere parecchio dello smalto originario; ha depotenziato le sonorità di quello che sarebbe stato un root-rock da Loolapalooza ma ci ha liberati dall'incubo dell'arpeggio e dello scampanellio chitarristico: terminato il primo ascolto di "Dusted", mi hanno chiamato da sinistra e mi sono girato verso destra.
Se ne sconsiglia, pertanto, l'ascolto durante la guida o sotto le elezioni.
Elenco tracce e testi
01 Lost Horizons (02:48)
The last horizons I can see are filled with bars and factories
and in them all we fight to stay awake...
Drink enough of anything to make this world look new again
Drunk drunk drunk in the gardens and the graves
She had nothing left to say so she said she loved me
I stood there grateful for the lie...
Drink enough of anything to make this girl look new again
Drunk drunk drunk in the gardens and the graves
Turn summer trees to bones and ice
Turn insect songs against the night
With words we build and words we break
I'm drunk drunk drunk in the gardens and the graves...
Maybe I could use you to reassure myself
I wouldn't wish this indecision on anybody else
Drink enough of anything to make this world look new again
And when the sin smiles how could it be wrong
The last horizons I could see are now resigned to memories
I never thought I'd still be here today...
Drink enough of anything to make myself look new again
Drunk drunk drunk in the gardens and the graves
02 Cajun Song (02:43)
well, she'll be leavin today i do know
so far away
i'm feelin so blue and it shows
in every single way
once that girl, she was mine
for such a short time
we used to spend every night
now all i do is cry
they say, that you can't miss,
somethin that you've never had
so tell me why,
why i could feel so bad
well we used to walk down the path
just like lovers do
she'll hold my hand and we'll laugh
and i'd stare in here eyes they were blue, ooh
once that girl she was mine
for suc a short time
we used to spend every night
now all i do is cry
they say, that you can't miss
somethin' that you've never had
so tell me, why
why i should feel so bad...
03 Found Out About You (03:19)
All last summer, in case you don't recall,
I was yours and you were mine
Forget it all
Is there a line that I could write
That's sad enough to make you cry?
All the lines you wrote to me were lies
Months roll past the love that you struck dead
Did you love me? Only in my head
The things you said and did to me
They seem to come so easily
The love I thought I'd won
You give for free
Whispers at the bus stop
Well, I've heard about nights out in the school yard
I found out about you
I found out about you
Rumors follow everywhere you go
Like when you left and I was last to know
Well you're famous now and there's no doubt
In all the places you hang out
They know your name and they know what you're about
Whispers at the bus stop
Well, I've heard about nights out in the school yard
I found out about you
I found out about you
Hey
Street lights blink on through the car window
I get the time to often on AM Radio
Well you know it's all I think about
I write your name drive past your house
Your boyfriend's over I watch your lights go out
Whispers at the bus stop
Well, I've heard about nights out in the school yard
I found out about you
I found out about you
Whispers at the bus stop
Well, I've heard about nights out in the shool yard
I found out about you
I found out about you
I found out about you
06 Idiot Summer (03:50)
I walked home to the sun
I couldn't ride another one
I thought a lot along the lines
And I've been fooled about all night
Wiped clean always by midnight
Wasn't it like an idiot summer...
Three, four peaks all I could see
In the morning it's a hundred and ten degrees
But I like the goddamn heat
I lie awake half the night
Autumn is coming it seems like it's in sight
All the autumn that you can see
All the autumn that you can see
It's growing darker like the trees
But if all the trees should fall
All the bugs would crawl in my sleep
and then it's cold
It's growing darker like the trees
But if all the trees should fall
All the bugs would crawl in my sleep
and then it's cold
There's no telling I was so confused
I try but I can't help you choose
Tucson is so far away
I lie awake half the night
Autumn is coming it seems like it's in sight
Wasn't it like an idiot summer...
07 Angels Tonight (02:36)
Party girls between the sheets
She can't show that much to me
I'd rather drink until I see
Angels tonight
I had a girl I thought was mine
I wised up and just in time
Such wisdom makes these sluts look like
Angels tonight...
As we collide as the lights go out
There's someone else she thinks about
It's all for the best that I can't figure out
Angels tonight...
08 Keli Richards (02:31)
She came to L.A. all the way from Boston town
She wound up on the screen where I saw her goin' down
Now I can't see you, I can't see you at all
No I don't know you, I don't know you at all
I bought her films, yeah I bought all her magazines
And I watched her every move until I saw her in my dreams
Now I can't stand it, see you caught from behind
No I don't know you, girl you gotta be mine
Keli Richards come on...
Well I bought a gun, there's just one thing left to do
Now I can't make up my mind it comes down to me or you
Now I can't see you, I can't see you at all
No I don't know you, I don't know you at all
Keli Richards come on...
09 Hey Jealousy (03:30)
Well tell me do you think it'd be alright
If I could just crash here tonight
You can see I'm in no shape for driving
Anyway I've got no place to go
And you know it might not be that bad
You were the best I'd ever had
If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago
I may not be alone
Tomorrow we can drive around this town
And let the cops chase us around
The past is gone but something might be found to take its place
Hey Jealousy
Hey Jealousy
Hey Jealousy
Hey Jealousy
You can trust me not to think
And not to sleep around
And if you don't expect too much from me
You might not be let down
'Cause all I really want is to be with you
Feeling like I matter too
If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago
I might be here with you
Tomorrow we can drive around this town
And let the cops chase us around
The past is gone but something might be found to take its place
Hey Jealousy
Tomorrow we can drive around this town
And let the cops chase us around
The past is gone but something might be found to take its place
Hey Jealousy
Hey Jealousy
Hey Jealousy
Hey Jealousy
Well tell me do you think it'd be alright
If I could just crash here tonight
You can see I'm in no shape for driving
And anyway I've got no place to go
And you know it might not be that bad
You were the best I'd ever had
If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago
I may not be alone
Tomorrow we can drive around this town
And let the cops chase us around
The past is gone but something might be found to take its place
Hey Jealousy
Hey Jealousy
You know she took my heart
Well there's only one thing I couldn't start
11 Slave Dealer's Daughter (02:33)
I've been trying for so long
Trying to forget
The ports of northern Africa and the man I met
He said he had a daughter
Maybe I could meet her
He thought I was a trader
Oh, that was how I met
That slave dealer's daughter
Her eyes were black her hair was raven
Her skin was soft and brown
Eighteen years she looked a woman
I thought she'd been around
She'd never met a jailbird???
I knew that she was lonely
She offered me her body
So I fell in love
With that slave dealer's daughter
Her father's men came after me
Trying to hunt me down
For three long years I've hid my face
And run from town to town
She never met a jailbird
I knew that she was lonely
She offered me her body
So I fell in love
With that slave dealer's daugther...
12 Fireworks (03:06)
The fireworks from the rooftops fall down around this hotel
So tell it seems like so long since I've had you beside me here
We used to walk together
I've nothing to show me now and it seems like so long
Since I've had you beside me here
Well he's got ropes and chains all around her heart
And nothing I can say could ever tear them apart
Her mumbles come now softly
From the other side of this room
And the things she won't say
Just reminds she's not alone
Well I can't help but feeling a little more than blue
Cause the things that matter just don't mean a damn to you
Well he's got ropes and chains all around her heart
And nothing I can say could ever tear them apart
The fireworks from the roofs all fall down around you
So tell it seems like so long since I've had you beside me here
Lets a walk together
I've nothing to show me now and it seems like so long
Since I've had you beside me here
Well he's got ropes and chains all around her heart
And nothing I can say could ever tear them apart...
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