Premessa: questa è la mia prima recensione "musicale" e quindi diciamo che sto "sperimentando" vari modi per realizzarne una, questa volta ho deciso di utilizzare il "Track to Track" vediamo un pò cosa ne salterà fuori; aggiungo che non sono uno di quei recensori alla "In questo pezzo si usa un ritmo dubstep che si mischia con sonorità prettamente post synth punk protendenti al growl basilare con chitarra disadattata in punti armonici in scala pulinomia" o cose così (Un pò di ironia!), amo solo sentire la musica: non sono un "tecnico" di essa, ed inoltre se noterete (molto probabile) inesattezze storiche scrivetele nei commenti!
(Prima di iniziare un pò di storia della band and company)
I Jawbreaker si fondano nel 1987 a New York, pochi anni prima dell'uscita di album come "Spiderland" degli Slint (1989) [Post-Rock] e "Diary" dei Sunny Day Real Estate (1992) [Emo], cos'hanno in comune i Jawbreaker con questi due album? Anche i "Jaw" hanno il merito di aver rinnovato il panorama musicale prendendo sonorità vicinissime al Punk ma cambiando le tematiche tipiche del genere ("Like killing cops and reading Kerouac" come dice il testo della loro canzone "Boxcar"), arrivando a parlare di sentimenti o comunque di temi molto introspettivi; il genere è comunemente noto come "Prima ondata Emo" io preferisco definirlo come "Punk Emo", ma i meriti dei Jawbreaker non si fermano qua: dopo che i SDRE nel 1993 (con appunto l'album "Diary") hanno ulteriormente rinnovato il genere, creando quella che è nota come "Seconda ondata Emo" (Che io preferisco definire semplicemente "Emo") distaccandosi dalle sonorità Punk e creando suoni più personali ed armoniosi, i Jawbreaker hanno pensato a "raffinarne" ulteriormente a loro volta le sonorità del genere con l'album "Dear You" del 1995, album che porta il genere Emo alla sua completezza sia a livello di testi che di musica. Ma torniamo al 1993, anno in cui contemporaneamente ai SDRE i Jawbreaker fanno uscire l'album che recensirò quest'oggi: "24 Hour Revenge Therapy" a mio parere la raffinazione assoluta del "Punk Emo" e insieme a "Dear You" l'album migliore della band.
Andiamo!
L'album si apre in modo gasatissimo con "The Boat Dreams From The Hill/Indictment" canzone che contemporaneamente risulta sia allegra che malinconica introducendoci fin da subito nelle sonorità tipiche dei primi 3 album dei Jawbreaker: Sonorità punk, allegria, ma con un punto di negatività fra le righe; questa canzone affronta anche una delle tematiche ricorrenti nelle canzoni dei Jawbreaker: quella della band underground ("I just wrote the dumbest song. It's gonna be a sing along. All our friends will clap and sing. Our enemies will laugh and be pointing.") orecchiabile, allegra e di facile ascolto, un'ottima track per iniziare l'album. (7,5) Un'attimo di silenzio ed ecco che parte il riff di "Boxcar" forse il pezzo più famoso e geniale dell'album, ci espone sul nascere dell'album a cosa punta la band ("You're not punk, and I'm telling everyone. Save your breath, I never was one. You don't know what I'm all about, Like killing cops and reading Kerouac. My enemies are all too familiar, they're the ones who used to call me friend.") grandissima presa per il culo a tutti i ragazzini che si credono "Punk/Alternativi", forse il pezzo più scanzonato e di sfida dell'album. (8) Parte un riff lento e posato ed ecco che inizia "Outpatient" personalissima canzone del cantante Schwarzenbach che descrive la sua esperienza avuta l'anno prima, quando per colpa di alcuni polipi in gola si è dovuto operare alle corde vocali interrompendo il "Kerouac Tour", quest'operazione oltre ad essere stata molto dura ha cambiato in modo irreversibile la voce di Blake, togliendogli la profondità e aggressività dei primi due album conferendogli una voce più fragile e personale (che personalmente preferisco alla prima trovandola più adatta ai testi della band.), pezzo molto intenso che pur non parlando di un tema comune è capace di trasmettere molte emozioni. (7) ("No one said that this life was easy. Did that no one ever live a life; this hard? It gets hard. The bills are scattered in the yard. Ashtray monument.") E' così che si apre un'altra canzone riflessiva in pieno stile Jawbreaker, piena di interrogativi e con poche risposte, "Ashtray Monument" è una canzone intensa ed orecchiabile (7,5) che risulta piazzata eccellentemente prima della mia canzone preferita dell'album: "Condition Okland" struggente canzone che si apre con un riff carico e martellante per poi farci sprofondare nell'altalenarsi di carica e di emozioni della canzone ("This is my condition: Desparate, alone, without an excuse. I try to explain; Christ, what's the use?") prima di cadere in un limbo di relax per poi crescere nel bellissimo finale; in assoluto la mia preferita dell'album. (8,5) Ed ecco che parte "Ache" ("Pick up the phone and punch your home code. Somewhere, sometime let me make you mine.") altra canzone molto intensa ed affascinante dell'album, che però ammetto come melodia assomiglia ad altre canzoni dei Jawbreaker (una pecca della band) pecca portata all'estremo in "Dear You" in cui la ritmica delle canzoni risulta molto simile fra loro (Pecca comunque non gravissima, visto che le canzoni sia in questo album che in "Dear You" presentano contenuti piuttosto vari). (7) Finita questa piacevole canzone ecco che parte a tutto volume e a tutta velocità un'altra delle canzoni che preferisco dell’album: “Do you still hate me?” canzone dalla costruzione semplice e diretta che parla di un comune ragazzo innamorato pieno di dubbi e di rimpianti ("Are we talking? Are we fighting? Is it over? Are we writing? We're getting older. But we're acting younger. We should be smarter. It seems we're getting dumber. I have a picture of you and me in Brooklyn. On a porch, it was raining. Hey, I remember that day. And I miss you.”) nemmeno tre minuti ad alta velocità, un gran pezzo immediato e "di scuola". (8) La canzone dopo è "West Bay Invitational" carichissima e martellante canzone nella quale Schwarzenbach torna a toccare tematiche relative al mondo adolescenziale dell'epoca, la crescita e "i party" il tutto con una base dura ed intensa che si abbina piacevolmente al testo (7) il ritmo non rallenta ed ecco che subito parte "Jinx Removing" dove la band non cala il ritmo e crea una canzone martellante dove questa volta Blake torna a parlare del suo rapporto complicato e contorto con le ragazze in modo totalmente personale. (7) La musica cambia, il riff iniziale della track conclusiva dell'album, "In Sadding Around" è forse il più cupo dell'album, ricordandoci le tematiche care all'album precedente della band ("Bivouac" del 1992, forse l'album più cupo ed introspettivo della band), la canzone procede martellante risultando un piccolo "riassunto" delle tematiche dell'album (che poi in effetti non sono poi così tante): La band, i dubbi, l'amore e la società "adolescenziale" dell'epoca, chiudendo in modo originale ed ambiguo l'album. (7,5)
In conclusione uno di quegli album che mettono insieme pezzi di grande spessore ad altre canzoni "minori" ma sempre piacevoli da ascoltare, perle da gustare in punti vuoti della giornata; l'album segna quindi il perfezionamento delle sonorità "Punk Emo" del gruppo prima del loro cambio di marcia con "Dear You" e rappresenta uno dei capisaldi del genere, un pezzo di storia da avere per tutti gli amanti del genere.
Una parola per descriverlo? Semplice... Bello!
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 The Boat Dreams From the Hill (02:39)
Boat on a hill, never going to sea.
Anchored to a fixer upper's dream.
This boat is beat, never going to be a boat now.
Thirsty, sees the sea from high on ice plant.
He keeps patching it and painting.
Thinking about his pension plan.
But the boat is out to pasture.
Seems it never had a chance.
I wanna be a boat. I wanna learn to swim
Then I'll learn to float. Then begin again.
Boat remembers the carpenter's sure hand.
Missing fishy flutter on it's rudder.
Sold at an auction, on a dolly ever since.
Sometimes rainy days bring boyish wonder.
02 Indictment (02:49)
I just wrote the dumbest song.
It's gonna be a sing along.
All our friends will clap and sing.
Our enemies will laugh and be pointing.
It won't bother me, what the thoughtless are thinking.
I am more concerned with what we're drinking.
They'll laugh about it at the warehouse,
saying I'm so lame. It wrote itself,
you can keep the blame.
It'll be a happy song, not unlike some other ones.
While everyone's depressed and broke,
I get high off your sick jokes.
They're colossal.
They're tousling all the worried hair. Stay up there.
So crazy it just might work.
Then we'll quit our jobs.
We could be the next group that you rob.
There are times for being dumb.
This must be one of them.
I'd like to know what's so wrong,
with a stupid happy song?
It says many things in its nothingness.
It gives me space to think, I guess.
To think less. And less.
Moving units and tracking charts.
Will they ever learn?
It isn't who you know, it's who you burn.
It means nothing. Selling kids to other kids.
If you think we changed our tune, I hope we did.
03 Boxcar (01:54)
You're not punk, and I'm telling everyone.
Save your breath, I never was one.
You don't know what I'm all about.
Like killing cops and reading Kerouac.
My enemies are all too familiar.
They're the ones who used to call me friend.
I'm coloring outside your guidelines.
I was passing out when you were passing our your rules.
One. Two. Three. Four. Who's punk what's the score?
Got a friend. Her name is Boxcar.
Cigarettes and beer in El Sob.
Her hair was blue, now it's green.
I like her mind. She hates the scene.
My enemies are all too familiar.
They're the ones who used to call me friend.
I'm coloring outside your guidelines.
I was passing out when you were passing our your rules.
One. Two. Three. Four. Who's punk what's the score?
You're on your own. You're all alone.
You're on your own. You're all alone.
You're on your own. You're all alone.
You're on your own. You're all alone.
04 Outpatient (03:41)
A little voice that's not quite your own.
Count backwards from ten.
Yellow jelly shot hard in vein.
I want to talk to you again.
"This is Jennings, your anesthetist."
"We think we'll go in through the mouth."
Watch the lights go from head to toe.
Doped up and coasting down the hall.
Now I'm talking through my pen.
Do you read me? Am I bleeding?
Am I bleeding again?
Suddenly hear so clearly again.
Wake up screaming so far from home.
Incontinent off continent.
The tears are warm. The body's numb.
Get your coat, your ride is here.
05 Ashtray Monument (03:04)
Free, alone.
The predawn white light's coming on.
Bottle on the night stand.
I count disasters on my free hand now.
Run for cover, there's a big one coming.
You'll be lucky if you're at ground zero.
No one said that this life was easy.
Did that no one ever live a life this hard?
It gets hard.
The bills are scattered in the yard.
Ashtray monument.
A life spent waiting in cement comes down.
Run for cover, there's a big one coming.
You'll be lucky if it's got your number.
No one said that this life was easy.
Did that no one ever live a life this hard?
After all, it's not that bad.
I still have pictures.
I look back at all the things that we once did.
You said, "I love you."
I guess you did.
Remember our life.
I did the dishes while you read out loud.
Best friends, strangers now.
Were our kids all we could call common ground?
After all, it's not that bad.
I still have pictures.
I look back at all the things that we once did.
You said, "I love you."
I guess you did.
06 Condition Oakland (05:17)
I rode down to the tracks.
Thinking they might sing to me.
But they just stared back.
Broken, trainless and black as night.
Climbed out onto my roof.
So I'd be a poet in the night.
Beat the walls off my room.
I saw the big room that is this life.
This is my condition:
Naked and hysterical,
Reaching to grab a hand
that I just slapped back at.
This is my condition:
Desperate, alone,
Without an excuse.
I try to explain. Christ, what's the use?
Read and I felt so small.
Some words keep speaking
When you close the book.
Drank and just about smiled.
Then I remembered us in that bed.
Put my ear to the door.
I just heard hot rods
and gunshots and sirens.
People kill me these days.
There's keys in their eyes
But they lock from the inside.
07 Ache (04:14)
I believe in desperate acts.
The kind that make me look stupid. (Look like a fool)
Just keep reinventing myself.
It's move or die. (I change my form)
These days the people I love
are spread so far apart. (All out of reach)
It's a thin sheet
Across the face. (Cover me now)
That's pretty old.
I never felt like this before.
I say that every hour.
It's never going to be like it could have been.
Now it's just this room. (Window looks back)
You're a big part of it.
But I don't care. (You take the lead)
And can you really see me now
Like I made me? (Made me anew)
Just like anyone at all.
Safer alone.
So right, so wrong.
Another winter's coming on.
You win, you lose.
It's the same old news. (These things go wrong so often)
Pick up the phone
and punch your code.
Somewhere, sometime let me make you mine.
Lean your head on mine
Like you used to. (Used to your lean)
I don't mind if you're faking it. (Make it seem real)
I'm not asking the questions.
I'm not demanding the answers now. (Take what you give)
Right or wrong, just take me,
lead me on.
I'm going.
08 Do You Still Hate Me? (02:52)
Been hearing about you.
All about your disapproval.
Still I remember.
The way I used to move you.
I wrote you a letter.
I heard it just upset you.
Why don't you tell me?
How can I do this better?
(Chorus)
Are you out there?
Do you hear me?
Can I call you?
Do you still hate me?
Are we talking?
Are we fighting?
Is it over?
Are we writing?
We're getting older.
But we're acting younger.
We should be smarter.
It seems we're getting dumber.
I have a picture
of you and me in Brooklyn.
On a porch, it was raining.
Hey, I remember that day.
(Chorus)
And I miss you. (3x)
(Chorus)
And I miss you. (3x)
09 West Bay Invitational (03:58)
All of the neighbors decided;
It's time to have all our strangers
over and make friends.
Chris got a pony keg of loose charm.
I had an accident. I hurt my arm.
People from bands and labels.
The good ones.
Plenty of stunning children. East Bay.
You were from Oakland by way of the Midwest.
I bought a rose and a suit
with the pants pegged.
You said, "I smelled you twice today."
Someone was passing out somewhere.
We kissed a shot of Kentucky straight.
I swore this life is worth the wait.
Hayes broke the scissors, apologized.
Our kitchen was crowded and steamy.
Isn't it always?
I just looked deeper into you.
You bit my neck blue.
We hung our clothes up on the floor
And put our faith in a closed door.
We're having this party. Please come.
It won't be the same without you. Please come.
10 Jinx Removing (03:13)
Talked out and now I'm feeling crowded.
All the errands in the world won't save us now.
Rained in and I won't come unclouded.
There's a stillness in the air.
I pray for sound.
We're too smart to watch TV.
We're too dumb to make believe
this is all we want from life.
And I'm too dumb to talk to you.
You're so quick to listen to me.
I'm saying nothing you don't know.
Nothing you don't know.
Walked out and I won't be rerouted.
If I don't go outside today, I never will.
Too old not to get excited
about rain and roads,
Egyptian ruins, our first kiss.
I love you more than I ever loved
Anyone before, or anyone to come.
Someone said your name, I thought of you alone.
I was just the same, twenty blocks away.
Blew twelve and kissed the thirteenth finger.
"Rabbit, rabbit," on the first.
I hold my breath.
Did tricks I hoped you wouldn't notice.
A superstitious hyperrealist.
I'll make you mine.
Carico i commenti... con calma
