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Un giorno, curiosando su ondarock, mi sono imbattuto nella recensione di un gruppo a me fino a quel momento sconociuto, gli Interpol. La recensione parlava del primo lavoro di questa band, "Turn Up In The Bright Lights" appunto, descrivendolo come un ottimo esordio di una band promettente. Decisamente incuriosito, il giorno dopo mi fiondo ad acquistare questo cd e successivamente a infilarlo nello stereo.
Il primo ascolto è decisamente convincente: ciò che spicca sono il timbro vocale del cantante, Paul Banks (la cui voce richiama, anche se non del tutto, quella di David Bowie), e l'ottima abilità del chitarrista, Daniel Kessler, componenti della band insieme a Carlos Denger (bassista e tastierista) e a Sam Fogarino (batterista). A questo primo approccio ne sono seguiti molti altri, ed in rapida successione. Questo è uno di quegli album che non ci si stancherebbe mai di ascoltare: non è mai ripetitivo, mai banale, ma sembra anzi riservare sempre qualcosa di nuovo ogni volta che lo inserisci nello stereo.
L'incipit è rappresentato da "Untitled", una sorta di preparazione a ciò che attende l'ascoltatore. La voce di Banks appare malinconica e lascia molto spazio alla parte strumentale, decisamente ben congeniata. Si nota una, seppur leggera, influenza dei Radiohead, soprattutto nel tratto canoro. Una della migliori canzoni del disco. "Obstacle 1", ottima nel finale, è un valido episodio che ci porta alla splendida "NYC", dedicata alla città degli Interpol, New York. Si tratta di una bellissima e coinvolgente ballata, la classica canzone da braccia alzate e accendini accesi: trascina secondo dopo secondo sempre di più, tanto che, alla fine, ti costringe a riascoltarla, e a riprovare le stesse precedenti emozioni. Si prosegue con la più ritmata e veloce "PDA", che non si fatica a definire fin dalle prime note: tutto il pezzo si sviluppa su accordi simili fino al tratto conclusivo, iniziato con un assolo di chitarra alla quale si uniscono progressivamente tutti gli altri strumenti fino al ricongiungimento finale con la voce del cantante. Quest'ultima traccia apre una fase del disco dominata da traccie accomunate tra loro da un sound accattivante e in certi tratti aggressivo. A fare da intermezzo in questa parte del cd è "Hands Away", a mio parere il vero capolavoro degli Interpol. Un mix tra la psichedelia e l'elettronica, che produce atmosfere quasi floydiane. È difficile spiegare cosa si prova ad ascoltare questa canzone: si ha come la sensazione di essere trasportati in un'altra dimensione compiendo un viaggio lento in un clima sognante, ci si estranea dal mondo esterno cadendo in piena trance.
Dopo questo capitolo a sé stante, continua ciò che era stato precedentemente interrotto, cioè una serie di tracce vivaci e veloci. È la volta dunque di "Obstacle 2" e di "Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down". Quest'ultimo è un altro pezzo di grande spessore, con quel ritornello rabbioso e continuo che rimane impresso nella mente e l'immancabile tratto melodico nel quale tutti gli strumenti si fondono alla perfezione creando un effetto a dir poco soddisfacente. "Roland", il cui testo tratta di un macellaio polacco che va in giro con sedici coltelli (!), chiude il filone più aggressivo e spalanca la porta al finale del disco, dove, con "New" e "Leif Erikson", si riscontra un ritorno allo stile caratterizzante della fase iniziale dell'album. Le ultime due tracce rappresentano il degno epilogo di questo bellissimo lavoro, che si colloca tra i migliori cd degli ultimi anni, e che lascia intravedere uno spiraglio di luce nel mesto e cupo scenario della musica odierna.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
02 Obstacle 1 (04:11)
I wish I could eat the salt
Off of your lost faded lips
We can cap the old times
Make playing only logical harm
We can cap the old lines
Make playing that nothing else will change
But she can read, she can read, she can read
She can read she's bad
She can read, she can read
She can read she's bad
Oh, she's bad
But it's different now that I'm poor and aging
I'll never see this face again
You go stabbing yourself in the neck
And we could find new ways of living
Make playing only logical harm
And we could top the old times
Clay-making that nothing else will change
But she can read, she can read, she can read
She can read she's bad
She can read, she can read
She can read she's bad
Oh, she's bad
It's different now that I'm poor and aging
I'll never see this place again
You go stabbing yourself in the neck
But it's different now that I'm poor and aging
I'll never see this place again
And you'll go stabbing yourself in the neck
It's in the way that she poses
It's in the things that she puts in my hair
Her stories are boring and stuff
She's always calling my bluff
She puts it, she puts the weights into my little heart
And she gets in my room and she takes it apart
She puts the weights into my little heart
I said she puts the weights into my little heart
She packs it away...
It's in the way that she walks
Her heaven is never enough
She puts the weights in my heart
She puts it, she puts the weights into my little heart
03 NYC (04:19)
I had seven faces
Thought I knew which one to wear
But I'm sick of spending these lonely nights
Training myself not to care
The subway is a porno
And the pavements they are a mess
I know you've supported me for a long time
Somehow I'm not impressed
New York Cares
(Got to be some more change in my life)
New York Cares
(Got to be some more change in my life)
Subway she is a porno
And the pavements they are a mess
I know you've supported me for a long time
Somehow I'm not impressed
It's up to me now, turn on the bright lights
It's up to me now, turn on the bright lights
New York Cares
(Got to be some more change in my life)
New York Cares
(Got to be some more change in my life)
It's up to me now, turn on the bright lights
(Got to be some more change in my life)
Oh, it's up to me now, turn on the bright lights
(Got to be some more change in my life)
04 PDA (04:59)
Yours is the only version
Of my desertion
That I could ever subscribe to
That is all that I can do
You are a past sinner
The last winner
I'm raping all around me
Until the last drop is behind you
But you're so cute
When you're frustrated, dear
Yeah, you're so cute
When you're sedated, dear
I'm resting
Sleep tight, grim right
We have two hundred couches where you can
Sleep tight, grim right
We have two hundred couches where you can
Sleep tight, grim right
We have two hundred couches where you can
Sleep tonight, sleep tonight
Sleep tonight, sleep tonight
You are the only person
Who's completely certain
There's nothing here to be into
That is all that you can do
You are a past sinner
The last winner
And everything we've come to
Makes you you, you
But you cannot safely say
While I will be away
You will not consider, sadly
How you helped me to stray
You will not reach me, I am
Resenting a position that is past resentment
And now I can't consider
And now there is this distance so
Sleep tight, grim right
We have two hundred couches where you can
Sleep tight, grim right
We have two hundred couches where you can
Sleep tight, grim right
We have two hundred couches where you can
Sleep tonight, sleep tonight
Sleep tonight, sleep tonight
Something to say
Something to do
Nothing to say
When there's nothing to do
05 Say Hello to the Angels (04:28)
I want your silent parts
The parts the birds love
I know there's such a place
I had my back turned
You didn't realize
I'm lonely
You lack the things
To which I relate
But I see no harm
Come wait, come wait, come wait
It's over
One, two, three, do me
When I'm feeling lazy
It's probably because
I'm saving all my energy
To pick up when you
Move into my airspace
Move into my airspace
And something's coming over me
I see you in the doorway
I can't control the part of me
That swells up when you
Move into my airspace
You move into my airspace
But each night, I bury my love around you
You're linked to my innocence
This is a concept
This is a bracelet
This isn't no intervention
This isn't you yet
What you thought was such a conquest
Your hair is so pretty and red
Baby, baby you're really the best
Can I get there this way?
I think so
We should take a trip now to see new places
I'm sick of this town
I see my face has changed
Say hello, say hello, to the angels
08 Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down (06:27)
When she walks down the street,
She knows there's people watching.
The building fronts are just fronts
To hide the people watching her
But she once fell through the street
Down a manhole in that bad way
The underground drip
Was just like her scuba days
Days
Daze
Days
Daze
She was all right because the sea was so airtight, she broke away
She was all right because the sea was so airtight, she broke away
She is all right but she can't come out tonight, she broke away
She was all right, yeah the sea was so tight, air tight
She broke away, broke away
At the bottom of the ocean she dwells
At the bottom of the ocean she dwells
Her caresses caressed by fingers
And fat blue serpent swells
Stella, Stella, oh Stella
Stella I love you, Stella I love you, Stella I love you
She was all right because the sea was so airtight, she broke away
She was all right because the sea was so airtight, she broke away
She is all right but she can't come out tonight, she broke away
She was all right, yeah the sea was so tight, air tight
She broke away, broke away
Well, she was my catatonic sex toy, love-joy diver
Well she was my catatonic sex toy love drug diver
She went down down down there into the sea,
Yeah she went down down down there, down there for me, right on
So good, oh yeah, right on
(There's something that's invisible,
There's some things you can't hide,
Try detect you when I'm sleeping,
In a wave you say goodbye...)
09 Roland (03:35)
My best friend's a butcher, he has sixteen knives
He carries them all over the town at least he tries.
Oh look it stopped snowing.
My best friend's from Poland and,um,he has a beard.
But they caught him with his case in that public place
That is what we had feared
He severed segments secretly you like that
He always took the time to speak with me
I liked him for that
He severed segments so secretly you liked that
He always took the time,he always took the time
My friend's a butcher,he has sixteen knives
He carries them all over the town,at least he tries,
Oh look it stopped snowing.
My best friend's from Poland and,um,he has a beard
But they caught him with his case in that public place
That is what we had feared
He severed segments secretly you like that
He always took the time to speak with me,
I liked him for that
He severed segments so secretly you like that.
He was growing on me.
He was growing on me.
10 The New (06:07)
I wish I could live free
Hope it's not beyond me
Settling down takes time
One day we'll live together
And life will be better
I have it here, yeah, in my mind
Baby, you know someday you'll slow
And baby, my hearts been breaking.
I gave a lot to you
I take a lot from you too
You slave a lot for me
Guess you could say I gave you my edge
But I can't pretend I don't need to defend some part of me from you
I know I've spent some time lying
(How am I doing?)
You're looking all right tonight
I think we should go
11 Leif Erikson (04:00)
She says it helps with the lights out
Her rabid glow is like braille to the night.
She swears I'm a slave to the details
But if your life is such a big joke, why should I care?
The clock is set for nine but you know you're gonna make it eight.
So that you two can take some time, teach each other to reciprocate.
She feels that my sentimental side should be held with kid gloves
But she doesn't know that I left my urge in the icebox
She swears I'm just prey to the female,
Well then hook me up and throw me, baby cakes, cuz I like to get hooked.
The clock is set for nine but you know you're gonna make it eight.
All the people that you've loved they're all bound to leave some keepsakes.
I've been swinging all the time, think it's time to learn your way.
I picture you and me together in the jungle it will be ok.
I'll bring you when my lifeboat sails through the night
That is supposing you don't sleep tonight
It's like learning a new language
Helps me catch up on my mime
If you don't bring up those lonely parts
This could be a good time
It's like learning a new language
You come here to me.
We'll collect those lonely parts and set them down
You come here to me...
She says brief things, her love's a pony
My love's subliminal
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di condor
Il riferimento ai Joy Division è inevitabile, a partire dalla voce e da quel senso dark che imprigiona tutte le canzoni.
Fate in modo da avere questo disco e non ve ne staccherete mai più.
Di AR (Anonima Recensori)
"Dopo solo un primo breve assaggio di quello che secondo me è un vero capolavoro già senti le prime parole di 'Obstacle 1' che ti risuonano in testa."
"Lo reputo miglior album del 2002, poi se non vi piace c’è sempre il 'Greatest Hits' dei Blue pronto ad essere acquistato."
Di lucarandi80
Una soffusa luce rossa infrange l'oscurità di un palco avvolto da un fumo denso e malsano.
'Turn on the Bright Lights' ha le sembianze dell'apocalisse ed è forse l'ultima testimonianza di come anche in questi tempi bui possano nascere veri capolavori.
