• Voto:
Mettiamo caso che un gruppo hardcore punk, famoso per un suono veloce e abrasivo, abbandoni il mondo indie per firmare un contratto con una multinazionale. E mettiamo anche caso che questo gruppo, nel primo album che pubblica con contratto major, aumenti di parecchio la dose di pop e melodia, infilandoci qua e là un paio di ballate acustiche e addirittura un pezzo pianistico. Bene, a quanto pare gli estremi per indignarsi e gridare al tradimento ci sarebbero tutti. Già, se non fosse che non stiamo parlando di una band qualsiasi: stiamo parlando degli Hüsker Dü.
L'album in questione è "Candy Apple Grey", uscito per la Warner Bros nel 1986, settimo e penultimo atto della saga del trio di Minneapolis. Sebbene sia da alcuni considerato come un album di transizione, il disco contiene alcune delle cose più belle incise dal gruppo nella sua fase pop.
L'iniziale "Crystal", violenta e monocorde, ha il compito di rendere subito chiaro all'ascoltatore che, nonostante il marchio WB sul retro della copertina, gli Hüskers non si sono affatto rammolliti e sono ancora in grado di picchiare duro come una volta. Il resto dell'album è invece all'insegna di un pop sempre corrosivo, ma dai toni malinconici. Grant Hart e Bob Mould si confermano ancora una volta grandi autori: al primo si devono le melodie mozzafiato di "Don't Want To Know If You're Lonely" e "Dead Set On Destruction", quella solenne di "Sorry Somehow" e l'imprevedibile "No Promise Have I Made"; il secondo firma le acustiche "Too Far Down" e "Hardly Getting Over It" (che col loro tono sommesso sono quasi un'anticipazione di ciò che farà da solista a inizio '90), le schitarrate in pieno stile Dü di "All This I've Done For You" e della sopracitata "Crystal", i ritornelli a presa rapida di "Eiffel Tower High" e "I Don't Know For Sure".
Certo, "Candy Apple Grey" non sarà paragonabile a uno "Zen Arcade", influente come un "New Day Rising" o completo come un "Warehouse", ma preso per sè è un album pressochè perfetto di pop alternativo dai toni ombrosi e nostalgici. Da rispolverare per l'autunno che ormai bussa alle porte.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Crystal (03:30)
Avalanche looms overhead
Airplane flies overhead
Important man sits by the window
Sucked out of the first class window
Images run by, thousand miles an hour
But the time seems far away
Folding clothes in a folding closet
Folding money in a resumé
Time to let off some pressure
Time to let off some steam
All your notebooks get thrown away
And you start your diary clean
Crystal glass lined up in a row
Watched over by the G.I. Joes
Sugar in your coffee doesn't taste quite right
Feeling the effects for a hundred thousand nights
When civilization falls in its grave
Technology throws on the dirt
You realize the finest things in life
Are the ones that can never be hurt
Shatters your brain in a million tiny pieces
The sounds you hear aren't coming out right
You think it might be mystic, you think I might be cryptic
The crystal in your china case is breaking in a million tiny pieces
02 Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely (03:31)
I'm curious to know exactly how you are
I keep my distance but that distance is too far
It reassures me just to know that you're okay
But I don't want you to go on needing me this way
And I don't want to know if you are lonely
Don't want to know if you are less than lonely
Don't want to know if you are lonely
Don't want to know, don't want to know
The day you left me, left me feeling oh so bad
Still I'm not sure about all the doubts we had
From the beginning we both knew it wouldn't last
Decisions have been made, the die has been cast
The phone is ringing and the clock says four A.M.
If it's your friends, well, I don't want to hear from them
Please leave your number and a message at the tone
Or you can just go on and leave me alone
04 Sorry Somehow (04:29)
Time heals, time goes on and time really flies
Time hurts and time can cut you, cut you down to size
There's no need to touch you now, no, I'm doing fine
Life too can cut you and I've cut you out of mine
You're making me...
Sorry, sorry somehow
Sorry, sorry somehow
There's no need to talk to you, well, to know what's on your mind
There's no need to see you either, no, I'm just being kind
You want me to beg forgiveness, tender an apology
It's not my fault and you're not getting one from me
Now I guess it's your decision, now you decide
Take me to the cleaners baby, take me for a ride
Whoever cares for your affairs will sort it out for you
Send me a subpoena, baby, tell me what to do
I don't have to think about you, think about the past
Those days stand out in my mind and those days were the last
I know the time is coming and I'm waiting for the day
I'd give you everything in the world just to get it out of the way
05 Too Far Down (04:38)
I'm down again
And I don't know how to tell you
But maybe this time I can't come back
Because I might be too far down
I wish for real
That I could turn it on and off
Like hot and cold and up and down
Because I'm down again
I'm too far down
I couldn't begin to smile
Because I can't even laugh or cry
Because I just can't do it
If it was so easy to be happy
Why am I so down?
All I can do is sit and wonder if it's going to end
Or if I should just go away forever
When I sit and think
I wish that I just could die
Or let someone else be happy
By setting my own self free
And you don't want the emotion
Because the taste it leaves is for real
But nothing's ever real until it's gone
And I might be too far down
And is this just another thrown away
Or is this the end of the whole stupid road
But you wouldn't want to know how I feel anyway
Because the darkest hole is at the end of the road
I'm down again
And I guess I'm not the only one who dreams
That there's not any way to tell you
Because I might be too far down
06 Hardly Getting Over It (06:06)
Twenty years ago, saw a friend was walking by
And I stopped him on the street to ask him
How it went, and all he did was cry
I looked him in the face, but I couldn't see past his eyes
Asked him what the problem was, he says
"Here is your disguise"
Now he's hardly getting over it
Hardly getting used to getting by
Old man lays down by the railroad tracks
Got no paper in his pocket, got no paper on his back
I asked him what the time was, he says
"Hit the road now, Jack"
Went back to see him next week
He died of a heart attack and died away
Now he's hardly getting over it
Hardly getting used to getting by
Grandma, she got sick, she is going to die
And Grandpa had a seizure, moved into a hotel cell and died away
My parents, they just wonder when they both are going to die
And what do I do when they die?
Now I'm hardly getting over it
Hardly getting used to getting by
07 Dead Set on Destruction (03:01)
Well, I'm standing in the queue
And I can't stand any more missing you
And I can't stand the pain
'Cause I can't get home 'cause of a hurricane
DEAD SET ON DESTRUCTION
There's no flights home today
And no services out on the motorway
And I can't leave the ground
And I can't find a place now to put her down
The Atlantic winds are high
There's only one virgin and she don't fly
And they can't land the plane
And they can't get home 'cause of a hurricane
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Cris
Grant Hart e Bob Mould sembrano rendersi conto che il loro suono ha raggiunto un limite oltre il quale non si può andare.
Questo disco mi fece amare il Rock, e mi fece credere che nonostante tonnellate di immondizia, bisogna scavare duramente per raccogliere la linfa vitale che ci farà amare la vita.
