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Grinderman (2007)
Il nuovo progetto musicale di Nick Cave.
Il ritorno di un personaggio unico e inimitabile. Di colui che usa le parole come lame taglienti e la voce come un organo nostalgico e inquieto. Del “poeta maledetto” del rock. Torna con un nuovo progetto, una nuova formazione e un nuovo disco: "Grinderman"!
Inclinazioni garage-rock, con qualche influenza post-punk a segnare il suo ritorno, ma forse anche un ritorno ai gloriosi anni dei Birthday Party, come alcuni sostengono. Per quanto mi riguarda, invece, riconosco in ogni traccia orme del nuovo Nick: quello acuto e consapevole dell’ultimo decennio; quello delle sofferenti canzoni ossessive, sempre pervase di ansia e volontà di redenzione.
Partiamo dalla formazione. Cave alla voce, al pianoforte e, curiosamente, alla chitarra oltre a tre altri Bad Seeds come Warren Ellis (violino), Martyn P. Casey (basso) e Jim Sclavunos (batteria). Il progetto comincia a prender forma nel 2003, quando i quattro artisti iniziano a suonare in questa formazione inedita. Dopo varie performances live, Nick Cave e gli altri decidono di registrare qualcosa di nuovo, d’inedito.
Grinderman è una ventata di freschezza, di una nuova energia che riesce ad esprimersi in ogni traccia. Dalla più sfrontata apertura con “Get It On”, che inaugura il disco con le sue ripetitive e graffianti chitarre, alla temporanea sospensione delle distorsioni con “Electric Alice” e “Grinderman”, che instaurano un regime di inquietudine in cui la voce di Cave si fa solenne, quasi sciamanica. Per poi continuare con brani che più si avvicinano agli ultimi lavori dello stesso leader. Incantevoli ballate che ruotano attorno ad un unico e reiterato riff di basso che ben si presta a mettere in risalto il grintoso timbro del cantautore di prima classe. Fra queste meritano una menzione particolare “Chain of Flowers”, sobriamente soul, e l’irruenta “Don’t set me free”, dove a dominare sono gli archi che creano una struttura musicale solida e robusta (che forse già da sola vale il prezzo, seppur elevato, dell’album!). Inattesi passaggi: con l’ottava traccia (“Honey Bee”) si passa dalla martellante batteria qua e là puntellata da frenetici assoli di violino elettrificato (“Love bomb”), a improvvisi miscugli di organo ed elettricità che, sballottandoci, ci riportano alle ritmiche dell’inizio per poi riproporre melodiche ballate coinvolgenti con “Man on the Moon”.
Che dire: forse che dal seme del passato ancora fiorisce nuova linfa, che non si specchia nel “già sentito” ma che va dritto all’inconsueto, all’unico.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
02 No Pussy Blues (04:20)
My face is finished, my body's gone.
And I can't help but think standin' up here in all this applause and gazin' down at all the young and the beautiful,
With their questioning eyes,
That I must above all things love myself,
That I must above all things love myself,
That I must above all things love myself,
I saw a girl in the crowd,
I ran over I shouted out,
I asked if I could take her out,
But she said that she didn't want to.
I changed the sheets on my bed,
I combed the hairs across my head,
I sucked in my gut and still she said
That she just didn't want to.
I read her Eliot, read her Yeats,
I tried my best to stay up late,
I fixed the hinges on her gate,
But still she just never wanted to.
I bought her a dozen snow-white doves,
I did her dishes in rubber gloves,
I called her Honeybee, I called her Love,
But she just still didn't want to. She just never wants to.
Damn!
I sent her every type of flower,
I played her guitar by the hour,
I patted her revolting little chihuahua,
But still she just didn't want to.
I wrote a song with a hundred lines,
I picked a bunch of dandelions,
I walked her through the trembling pines,
But she just even then didn't want to. She just never wants to.
I thought I'd try another tack,
I drank a litre of cognac,
I threw her down upon her back,
But she just laughed and said that she just didn't want to.
I thought I'd have another go,
I called her mah little ho,
I felt like Marcel Marceau
must feel when she said that she just never wanted to. She just didn't want to.
I got the no pussy blues.
I got the no pussy blues.
I got the no pussy blues.
Damn! Damn!
No pussy blues.
I got the no pussy blues
I got the no pussy blues.
I got the no pussy blues.
Yeah! Yeah!
03 Electric Alice (03:15)
Don’t the stars look good tonight
Thought Electric Alice
In the pale moonlight
Don’t the moon look big and bright
Thought Electric Alice
In the pale moonlight
I think I hear a baby cry
Thought Electric Alice as she passed by
Makes me feel like I’m a little child again
Thought Electric Alice in the silver rain
05 Depth Charge Ethel (03:47)
I entered the room and the canned laughter
Ethel was angled across some dude’s knee
I offered to clothe her to feed and to bath her
If she’d just give me a little exclusivity
Depth Charge Ethel is something special
Yeah Depth Charge Ethel is special to me
Ethel is a woman that a river runs through
She is famous throughout the land
People come and bathe in her, yeah, you know, I do
But lately its been getting right out of hand
Yeah Depth Charge Ethel is something special
Yeah Depth Charge Ethel is something special to me
To kiss Ethel is like drinking the stars
To not kiss her can make you come unglued
So if you want a piece of her you better get in there fast
Right now there is a ticket box and a queue
Depth Charge Ethel is something special
Depth Charge Ethel is something special to me
Depth Charge Ethel thinks we should all just take a chance
We should all love one another, it could be special
I’m in the back of a taxicab with ants in my pants
(I can’t sit still) I know there gonna send me
Depth Charge Ethel is something special
She’s something special she’s heavy metal
06 Go Tell the Women (03:24)
We done our thing
We have evolved
We’re up on our hind legs
The problems solved
We are artists
We are mathematicians
Some of us hold extremely high positions
But we are tired
We hardly breathing
And we’re free
Go tell the women that we’re leaving
We’re sick and tired
Of all this self-serving grieving
All we wanted was a little consensual rape in the afternoon
And maybe a bit more in the evening
We are scientists
We do genetics
We leave religion
To the psychos and fanatics
But we are tired
We got nothing to believe in
We are lost
Go tell the women that we’re leaving
We done our thing
We’re hip to the sound
Of six billion people
Going down
We are magicians
We are deceiving
We’re free and we’re lost
Go tell the women that we’re leaving
Hey hey come on back now to the fray
Hey hey come on back now to the fray
07 (I Don't Need You to) Set Me Free (04:06)
I saw you walking down on the street
I called out from my window but you didn’t hear me
I lay down and I tried to sleep
I waited for you to walk on by again
I don’t need you to set me free
I don’t want you to set me free
Well every time I see you I get sick
And every time I think of you I get sick
And every time I dream of you I get sick
And every time I cry for you I get sick
I don’t want you to set me free
I don’t need you to set me free
I don’t want you to set me free
I don’t just need you to set me free
I don’t want you to set me free
I just need you to set me free
Alright!! Set me free!
08 Honey Bee (Let's Fly to Mars) (03:18)
1234
Mad mullahs and dirty bombs
Alert the coasal command
Ack-ack positions everyone
She’s my honey bee and here she comes
Cancer rabies sars
Hairy beards and hurtling stars
Won’t somebody touch me?
Won’t somebody touch me?
Honey bee lets fly to Mars
Buzz buszz buzz
There’s a kid laying on the lawn
His neighbours on the telephone
The dispatcher asks “What’s going on?”
“Please Sir, what’s going on?”
The kid is laying on the lawn
He’s been giving me shit for years
He rides his bike across my lawn
Now he’s laying on the lawn
Won’t somebody touch me?
O someone please touch me!
Honey bee lets fly to Mars
Buzz buzz buzz Ba baba ba ba ba Wo!
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba!
Scud missiles Asian flu
The easily offended
We are the undefended
We are the undefended
Won’t somebody touch us
There’s a virus come to town
Won’t somebody give me a kiss
He’s been giving me shit for years
Honey bee lets fly to Mars
Buzz Buzz buzz buzz buzz
Honey bee Honey bee!
09 Man in the Moon (02:10)
My daddy was an astronaut
That’s what I was often taught
My daddy went away to soon
Now he’s living on the moon
Hang on to me people we’re going down
Down among the fishes in an absence of sound
It’s the presence of distance and it’s floating in time
It’s lack and it’s longing and it’s not very kind
Sitting here scratching in this rented room
Scratching and atapping to the man in the moon
About all the things that l’ve been taught
My daddy was an astronaut
11 Love Bomb (04:26)
C’mon
I read the book from back to front
It made a deep impression
Twenty thousand pages baby
I hoped for some direction
I stood before the mirror
I stared at my reflection
I’d almost disappeared
And I made no impression
I went down to my baby’s house
And I sat down on the step
Said 2000 yrs of Christian history baby
And you aint learned to love me yet
My baby looked me in the eye
My nails were bitten to the quick
She said you used to love me all night long
But you’ve gotten so thin and sick
I’m gonna send you a love bomb
I’m gonna send you a love bomb
I read that book from back to front
Looking for some inspiration
I’d been listening to the radio
Trying to find some self expression
I been listening to the woman’s hour
I been listening to Gardeners Question Time
But every thing I try to grow
I can’t even grow a dandilion
I’ve been watching the MTV
I’ve been watching the BBC
And I’ve been searching on the Internet
And I’m getting so thin and sick
I’m gonna send you a love bomb
I’m gonna send you a love bomb
I went to my baby’s house
And I sat down on the step
Yeah I went down to my baby’s house
And I lay down on the step
She said what are you doing here
I said I been trying to make some sense
But every action that I take
Is of absolutely no consequence
My baby said you can sit there
She reached down with her fingers
Her fingers went right through me
(I screamed my head off)
I was so thin and sick
I’m gonna send you a love bomb
I’m gonna send you a love bomb
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Mr.Moustache
La sincerità che popola questo disco è disarmante, molto più incisiva di altri passati lavori.
Credo sia l’unica vera perla del disco, semplice, comunicativa e pregna di poetica quanto di estetica.
Di Lesto BANG
"Ho i peli del culo che si rizzano... e sono solo alle prime note."
"La chitarra è il quarto di bue arpionato al gancio e la mannaia è il suo plettro."
Di RitaLeen
"Mi sono sentito tradito da Nick Cave, e tuttora penso che un po' di rincoglionimento senile se lo sia beccato."
"Avete mai sentito un suono più sterile nelle produzioni di Cave? Una inconsistenza così fatta di nulla?"
