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I Am X: niente male, caro il mio Chris Corner, direi che ti si addice perfettamente! X come incognita, come elemento indecifrabile, lui per me è proprio questo, un personaggio su cui proprio non riesco a formulare un giudizio preciso. Onesto mestierante? Mediocre cavalcatore di mode? Uno che potrebbe ma non vuole? Uno che vorrebbe ma non può? Vallo a capire, dagli Sneaker Pimps a questa carriera solista sotto pseudonimo, dal '96 ad oggi non un solo album in cui non faccia intravedere un grandissimo potenziale, e al tempo stesso un solo album che possa definirsi veramente bello e riuscito, più o meno. Stiloso e carismatico al punto giusto, polistrumentista, produttore, ed eterno incompiuto, forse per calcoli commerciali, forse per limiti propri e magari semplicemente per incostanza. Chris Corner mi fa decisamente girare le scatole, si, perchè è uno che potrebbe (o avrebbe potuto) fare cose veramente belle, e invece si limita ad essere una specie di alternativa un po' meno cafona e inflazionata a Muse e Placebo. "Volatile Times" del 2011 è forse il suo manifesto per eccellenza, tre gemme neo-glam di grande fascino e spessore, "I Salute You Christopher" (con un testo meraviglioso), "Bernadette" e "Oh Beautiful Town" che emergono in una brodaglia di insulso chitarrame sferragliante e ritornelli mezzi urlati di naso (uno stile forzoso, irritante e, checchè se ne dica, assolutamente inespressivo, che peraltro svilisce una vocalità duttile e di buona classe).
Caro il mio Chris Corner, visto che ormai cominci pure ad avere una certa, che ne diresti di smettere di arruffianarti qualche teenager munito di frangetta (poi hai pure cominciato con il trip-hop, quindi non è neanche il tuo background d'origine) e puntare su sonorità un po' più "adult-oriented"? Magari virando su un synth-pop cabaret un po' tenebroso neoclassico glam decadente, volendo ne saresti perfettamente capace, eh, volendo, è questa la fregatura. Eppure a cavallo tra il 2002 e il 2004 questo enigmatico songwriter britannico era arrivato molto vicino a una quadratura del cerchio; tra il piacevole e relativamente solido glam rock riletto in chiave anni '90, con quel tocco di broccoloneria "maledetta" di "Bloodsport", ultimo album a nome Sneaker Pimps e il primo atto della carriera solista, si può dire che Chris Corner abbia dato il meglio di sè proprio in questo periodo di transizione, soprattutto in termini di continuità e quantità. Monicker nuovo, sonorità nuove: con "Kiss + Swallow" CC ha sperimentato un sound elettronico al 100%, con esiti complessivamente felici; l'idea era giusta, a prescindere da una resa complessiva comunque perfettibile. Si, perchè un album con dodici canzoni tutte più o meno sui cinque minuti abbondanti di durata, a meno che il livello non sia veramente alto finisce sempre per risultare fiacco e ridondante in qualche episodio, è matematico, ma le intenzioni di base sono vincenti e gli episodi di punta rimangono ben impressi.
Il fascino di questo album sta tutto nel saper evocare con efficacia un immaginario lascivo e decadente: ambiguità, ritmi voluttuosi, voce di impostazione bowiana, atmosfere futuristiche ma intrise di passionalità carnale. Case chiuse, festini, trucco, maschere, bourlesque, latex nero; "Kiss + Swallow" rimanda a immagini di questo tipo, anche per il look di Chris Corner che, da bravo aspirante divo glam, cura con estrema attenzione questo aspetto. Ma qui era già andato oltre il rango di "aspirante": insomma, uno che ti tira fuori un pezzone torrido e costruito alla perfezione come "Sailor" è uno che ci sa fare sul serio, e poi "Kiss And Swallow", "Your Joy Is My Low", "White Suburb Impressionism", "Skin Vision", "Naked But Safe", la digressione techno di "You Stick It In Me". Una tracklist da proposta indecente, impreziosita da qualche lento malinconico e d'atmosfera come "Simple Girl", "I Like Pretending" e soprattutto "Missile"; beat perfetti, un grande senso della teatralità, interpretazioni credibili, quasi mai forzose e sopra le righe, richiami evidenti ma neanche poi troppo sfacciati a Bowie e Soft Cell (questi ultimi soprattutto nella titletrack). Con una base del genere Chris Corner avrebbe potuto avrebbe potuto dare il via a un vero rinascimento Glam, proiettandone gli stilemi in una dimensione moderna e credibile, e invece no, dopo "Kiss + Swallow" una delusione dopo l'altra, con qualche episodico barlume. Tra qualche mese uscirà il nuovo album, e il singolo che gira lascia ben sperare; che sia finalmente la volta buona? Se non è un'ultima chiamata poco ci manca. Per adesso il caro Chris Corner rimane un carismatico enigma, oppure un ruffiano ormai pluri-recidivo; non chiedo tanto, in fondo mi basta che limiti al minimo possibile gli starnazzi a'la Brian Molko e tutto il resto dovrebbe venire da sè, che ritorni alle sonorità di "Kiss + Swallow" o decida di seguire nuove strade l'importante per lui è dare un segnale di discontinuità e dimostrare finalmente tutta la sua classe.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
02 Kiss and Swallow (05:15)
Do you pay for your crimes?
Does the punishment fit or drag your style to zero
You're nothing till the weekend
If you think that you're the thrill
Take a look at your life, you kneel before your heroes
You're nothing till the weekend
Could you care for the blind?
Tell me all in all, they're just your kind of zeros
Something for the weekend
If you think that you can spell
Make a list of the cunts you'd send to hell and send them
Send them on the weekend
Echo Echo, I know it's a sin to kiss and swallow
Echo Echo, a kick in the head to kill the hollow
Echo Echo, I know it's a sin to kiss and swallow
Echo Echo, a kick in the head to kill the hollow
Do you care for the blind?
Tell me all in all, they're just your kind of zeros
Something for the weekend
If you think that you can spell
Make a list of the cunts you'd send to hell and send them
Send them on the weekend
Echo Echo, I know it's a sin to kiss and swallow
Echo Echo, a kick in the head to kill the hollow
Echo Echo, I know it's a sin to kiss and swallow
Echo Echo, a kick in the head to kill the hollow
Are you listening?
No - In the narrowest sense
Are you listening?
I can hold you down by candlelight
With indifference
Let the comfort start
I love you on your right side
It happens
Promises broken
Reasons let go
It happens
Are you listening?
I know it a sin but tell me it happens!
I know it a sin but tell me it happens!
Echo, Echo, Echo, Echo
Echo, Echo, Echo
Echo Echo, I know it's a sin to kiss and swallow
Echo Echo, I know it's a sin to kiss and swallow
03 Sailor (05:12)
In our cell, you ask me: "do I wanna be a sailor?"
In our cell, you ask me: "do I wanna be a sailor?"
I think dirt
A suicide jump to run a self check
Oh my girl
Do you only like the younger or the braindead?
Three way, freeway, take me like a sailor.
Three way, freeway, wanna be a sailor?
A-quick step, boy girl love me like you love her
A Knee-jerk, slow work, wanna be a sailor?
In our cell, you ask me: "do I wanna be a sailor?"
In our cell, you ask me: "do I wanna be a sailor?"
A child like a lipstick fight before the nose dive,
My princess, do you only like the easy and the snow blind?
Three way, freeway, take me like a sailor
Three way, freeway, wanna be a sailor?
A-quick step, boy girl love me like you love her
A knee-jerk, slow work, wanna be a sailor
Like a fever, I wanna be a sailor.
Like a fever, I wanna be the sailor.
Like a fever, I wanna be a sailor.
Like a fever, I wanna be the sailor.
Three way, freeway, take me like a sailor
Three way, freeway, wanna be a sailor?
A-quick step, boy girl love me like you love her
A knee-jerk, slow work, wanna be a sailor.
04 Naked but Safe (05:23)
The least wishes are orders,
Born raised and corned,
was kept fed and watered,
They tied me to the radiator
kicked around and locked down
Left in the cold to self harm
This is all that I know
Naked and safe and lifelessly yours... [2x]
Keep me fed, keep me watered, naked but safe
05 Simple Girl (04:41)
The perfect taste that leaves your mouth
The vodka tongue that spits it out
Violate me, January victim
All my life I've wasted for this
Violate me, show me your religion
All my time I've waited
Simple girl, simple girl
I need you in the world, my simple girl
And so the kiss became the cold
After the crash and my cosmetic lows
You resurrect me, stand me to attention
Take my voices, learn to love them
You're the Christmas promising the Summer
All my life I've waited
Simple girl, simple girl
I need you in the world, my simple girl
Simple girl, my simple girl
My simple girl, my simple girl
My simple girl, my simple girl
I need you in the world
Want you in the world
06 Mercy (06:01)
Mercy - when I melt in the kiss by the words and the whispers you sing me
Mercy - I'm frail in the kill by submission and will that you bring me
Mercy - when I'm nothing but ego you slap me to let go and sleep free
Now I sleep free...
You're my toybox, your my memories
When I smell your skin you just make my whole world weep
I'm at your feet, I'm at your feet
Mercy - when the grey turns to black and the wave's on my back, you make me smile
Mercy - is the trauma no martyr you crush into pleasure and downtown
Mercy - it's the shining of you that just breaks me in two like a lifeline - you're my lifeline
I'm the idiot to your poetry when you burn you bleach
Everything and all I need is at your feet, Is at your feet
Mercy - are the licks and the lips of temptation, just tricks, not for playing?
Mercy - are you the camera suck, gun slut to headphone fuck holes in my being
Mercy - are you everything which put the sex into bitch, just faking, do you fake it?
So I celebrate your chemistry
If you bond with me
I could make your whole world sweet
I'm on my knees
07 Your Joy Is My Low (05:17)
Said, your joy - your joy is my low
He takes your face and positions it to take your mouth
You bite, you bite to excite yourself
He wants the colour of you to wear and feel alive
And you bite, and I'm awake and I'm the slave tonight
You lie, you lie to spare my life
You needed it, he tasted you inside out
So, your joy, your joy is my low
- So you want yourself to stop
So, your joy, your joy is my low
- And when you can't, ??
You shift the play, push the curve to sit between your thighs
It's a sign, it's time to exercise the lines
You want the double cut through to wet, invade and slide
You slide and I'm awake and I'm the slave tonight
You lie, you lie to spare my life
you needed it, he tasted you inside out
Say it, your joy, your joy is my low
- So you want yourself to stop
Said, your joy, your joy is my low
- And when you can't, ??
Say it, your joy, your joy is my low
- So you want yourself to stop
Said, your joy, your joy is my low
Your joy is my low
- Want yourself to stop
So, your joy, your joy is my low
- So you want yourself to stop
Said, your joy, your joy is my low
- And when you can't, ??
Say it, your joy, your joy is my low
- So you want yourself to stop
Said, your joy, your joy is my low
Your joy is my low
08 I Like Pretending (05:15)
Your silver skin
That crawls in rhythm, sweats like spring
Returns me to the deathwish
And all my epiphonies
That branded me and broke my knees
Confirms me into the deathwish
Misfits for free
A gravity pure expression tears and
Pulls them into the deathwish
And all our accessories
That concentrate the pain and tease
Embrace them, with the deathwish
Are we pretending?
Are we pretending?
Are we pretending?
I like pretending
Are we machines
Obsolete, alone
With symbiotic self indulgence
And if we dig deep
The circuitry burnt out, bends
Into neurotic repetition
But your silver skin soothes my aching curses
And reminds me
That you're worth it
The whole world's insanities
The bleeding hearts and tragedies
Won't distract me from the deathwish
Are we pretending?
Are we pretending?
Are we pretending?
I like pretending
Are we pretending?
Are we pretending?
Are we pretending?
'Cos I like pretending
09 You Stick It in Me (04:19)
You stick it in me, then go to her
You stick it in me, then go to her
You stick it in me, then go to her
And then you touched me
Life question
You stick it in me, then go to her
You stick it in me, then go to her
You stick it in me, then go to her
And then you touched me
Life question
You touch me
My voice breaks
I'm crawling in the grass
I fake rape
I love you
You sex clown
I try to fill the hole
Where you climb down
I have blood, so hurt me
I have blood, so hurt me
I have blood, so hurt me
I have blood, so hurt me
You stick it in me, then go to her
You stick it in me, then go to her
You stick it in me, then go to her
And then you touched me
Life question
You stick it in me, then go to her
You stick it in me, then go to her
You stick it in me, then go to her
And then you touched me
Life question
You touch me
My voice breaks
I'm crawling in the grass
I fake rape
I love you
You sex clown
I try to fill the hole
Where you climb down
I have blood, so hurt me
I have blood, so hurt me-e-e-e
I have blood, so hurt me
I have blood, so hurt me
You stick it in me, then go to her
You stick it in me, then go to her
You stick it in me, then go to her
And then you touched me
Life question
You stick it in me, then go to her
You stick it in me, then go to her
You stick it in me, then go to her
And then you touched me
Life question
Life question
Life question
11 Missile (03:36)
So you came like a missile
Falling on my head with the black sky
Think you're giving but you're taking my life away
Then you came with your breeze blocks
Smashing up my face like a bus stop
Think you're giving but you're taking my life away
Like the drunk you convinced was sober
You keep me falling over
- In the daylight
Think you're giving but you're taking my life away
With the best of intentions
You tried to give an ocean directions
Think you're giving but you're taking my life away
So you came like a missile
Leaving me the whole world in exile
Think you're giving but you're taking my life away
Like the drunk you convinced was sober
You keep me falling over
- In the daylight
Think you're giving but you're taking my life away
Think you're giving but you're taking my life away
12 White Suburb Impressionism (05:05)
You might keep me alive
But I could let you down anytime that I like
Shoot down your absolute form in the primitive
I can't see the point in the sense you were born with
Everybody's someone else's freak
Every cure is someone else's disease [2x]
Break my neck or my fall
And burn all the bridges and breach every wall
The sweetest of touches, the violent caress
The time of your life for the marks that you left on me
Everybody's someone else's freak
Every cure is someone else's disease
White Suburb Impressionism [2x]
Never argue with these idiots
They drag you down to their level and beat you with ignorance
Am I through? I haven't even started
I can't see the point in the sense you were born with
Everybody's someone else's freak
Every cure is someone else's disease
White Suburb Impressionism [2x]
Call me when the whole regression's complete
I'll take you on a piece at a time [3x]
And I'll take you on
13 Heatwave (05:08)
She moves the street way
A hitched up skirt, a symptom of the heatwave.
She lets go lowgrade
We can stay closed 'til 4am the next day
If it's for 5 years
I get a fantasy breeding babies in my nightmares
- My nightmares
If she goes the street way
I get a peepshow free and a pressure drop to get laid
If you're asking, well
I've just started on my breakdown
If you need to know
I've just started on my breakdown
She moves the street way,
A pretty sweet blonde, an illusion of the heatwave
I see her legs and shoulders
And picture myself as a missionary soldier
She kicks my mouth shut,
Make me go down, take a pleasure pill, just throw up
- Goin' down, down, down
He moves the street way,
Anything goes to release me from the heatwave
- Release me from the heatwave
If you're asking, well
I've just started on my breakdown
If you need to know
I've just started on my breakdown
- Release me from the heatwave
- From the heatwave
- A pretty sweet blonde, an illusion of the heatwave
14 This Will Make You Love Again (04:58)
when the joys of living just leave you cold
frozen from the failing mess you made your own
and if you want an ending to your screenplay life
well here's the consolation that will change your heart and mind
all the glitz messiah's just pass the time
a cure for no real sickness, cross your hopes and die
your supermarket jesus comes with smiles and lies
where justice he delays is always justice he denies
this will make you love again
this will make you love again
this will make you love again
this will make you love again
and now you save
love again
to feel the rays
love again
the sweet delays
love again
and shoot the breeze
love again
early thursday mornings
wipe away the flies
the crossfire fight for action
inbetween your thighs
every touch is sacred
when they leave the room
if i have to switch the lights off
i wanna switch them off with you
this will make you love again
this will make you love again
this will make you love again
this will make you love again
and now you save
love again
to feel the rays
love again
the sweet delays
love again
and shoot the breeze
love again
early thursday mornings
wipe away the flies
the crossfire fight for action
inbetween your thighs
every touch is sacred
when they leave the room
if i have to switch the lights off
i wanna switch them off with you
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Di CaptainHowdy
IAMX, io sono X: tanta sicurezza nel confessare il proprio essere inadeguato alle classificazioni finisce con il disarmare.
Il disco scorre dolce nell’oscurità lasciandomi drammaticamente avvolto: e con la fine dell’ultima traccia il ritorno al Sole non potrà mai essere più doloroso.
