Cosa fa una sarcastica ragazza vestita da collegiale, ubriaca, sul palco di un pub davanti ad una ventina di persone? Ci intona quel bellissimo pezzo dal "significativo" titolo di "Fuck Was I", perché lei è Jenny Owen Youngs dal New Jersey and she's "Singing Sweet And Drinking Hard Since 1981".
Dotata di una voce molto pulita (con sfumature molto jazz), la nostra fanciulla ci propina un indie pop cantautorale intriso di folk molto misurato, spesso attraversato da chiaroscuri ("Lighting Rod", "Voice On Tape"), molto più spesso da ironia verso se stessa ed i rapporti con l'altro sesso. Niente di particolarmente trascendentale, anche perché in più punti vi sembrerà di ascoltare una Cat Power molto più rilassata e con meno scazzi per la testa, ma per fortuna ci si ferma molto prima del plagio, dato che la ragazza ha una personalità già ben definita.
Composto da 10 brani, quasi tutti impostati sullo stile della ballata intimista, con tempi lenti, chitarra e voce, nessuna sezione ritmica, "Batten The Hatches" è un'opera prima che scorre via un po' troppo senza scossoni, ma che riesce a riservare qualche sorpresa. Assolutamente imprescindibile è la sopracitata "Fuck Was I", liberamente scaricabile dal sito dell'artista: irresistibile ballata a tempo di valzer, in cui gli archi riescono a creare un'atmosfera sospesa davvero deliziosa, mentre le parole disegnano una situazione interpersonale che definirei eufemisticamente "intricata".
Molto belle anche "Bricks","Woodcut" e "Keys Out, Lights On" in cui la tromba dona quel sapore jazzy che fa tanto luci della metropoli a tarda notte.
Particolarmente ispirati in genere i testi, freschi, ironici, da cui traspare una certa sincerità che depone decisamente a favore della nostra ubriacona, anche se sono del genere "io, il mondo, tu e tutte le altre". In definitiva: "Fuck Was I" da sola vale 5 stelle, il resto del disco un 3,5. La teniamo d'occhio in attesa che cresca, visto il potenziale che dimostra di avere.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Porchrail (01:45)
I've got a case of the stares like you wouldn't believe.
Everyone moves around with me,
I try to focus but I can't keep still
and since you're kind I think you will.
Just hold right there,
don't move or blink.
Just need a minute
to sit and think.
I got a spat of attention
always on my tea,
Every urge on that swing turns tradgically free.
There's nothing more attractive like the thing you can't have.
I've got every intention of loosing my tie,
from the motivation to make this man mine.
Just hold right there
don't move or blink.
Just need a minute
to sit and think.
I'm going to be sick,
I think I'm going to be sick
04 Lightning Rod (03:27)
Heart attack,
jack-in-the-box
I've been here so long
I'm starting to rot.
And you're taking my fear,
selling it in jars.
Back on the playground
my blue socks are bloody
I need someone to toss the confetti
at the Ticker Day Parade,
falling for myself.
Look to the fly
she used to be pretty
don't say a word,
but shes drying out slowly
you have the answers
I have the car keys.
Lightning rod strapped to my shoulders
I'm searching through windows for right and thunder that could bring to merciful end this overdrone way.
Carpet burns up to my elbows
it's time that you learned,
I guess I should tell you,
that the things you know about me
never would come true.
Look to the fly
I used to be pretty
dont say a word
but I'm drying out quickly
you have the answers
I have the car keys
05 Voice on Tape (03:03)
All the evidence points in one direction
since i don't need you physically around
I've got your voice on tape
I've got your words in me
I don't want anything else
I don't want anyone else
A thing that I have but I've dropped
All that I've had but I dropped
I want you back and forth
I want you up and down
I want you inside out
I've got your voice on tape
I've got your words in me
I don't want anything else
I don't want anyone else
And you say that I don't have this down
but I've been practicing out loud
I want you back and forth
I want you up and down
I want you back and forth......
(I've got your voice on tape
I've got your words in me)
07 Bricks (05:00)
Theres bricks in the yard
Falling where they flew,
I'm sure mom and dad
Wont give a sitch for one or two.
Building no hagards that travel left to rest.
Building is better but breaking is easy and i dont know which to trust.
I think there must be something wrong with me.
Like the path that goes unwatched among the very finest edge,
My eyes are all wide and my stomach decends.
Chorus
And i'll do whatver you say,
I'll say whatever you want
If you just put that away
If you just perish that thought.
Why can't we be a normal family?
And i'll count my footsteps across the garden stones,
The faintest love glides six above cement and rust and bones.
And i'll gather my eggshells softly i guess till i have enough to fill up the nest you're on.
I'll draw up the blue prints but i'll never use them.
Now i've only ever offered you myself and you always say it's not enough.
Pray for your paralysis while i'm coating for your touch.
And i'll do whatver you say
I will say whatever you want
If you just put that away
If you just perish that thought
Oh you talk about violence like it doesnt exsist
Like a fire is a womb,
And a womb is a fist.
And i'll bend withforthee
When your tongue comes unglued
But ill seize up inside
If your mouth says it's true.
Don't you wanna be a normal family?
A normal family.
I'm a steel wall
I don't want to see anything at all.
I'm a steel wall
I don't need to feel anything at all.
I don't want to see anything, and i don't need to feel anything,
And i don't want to know anything at all
09 Coyote (03:14)
Well you're traipsin' up and down my backyard
Get too cold, I'd die
Diggin' through my trashcans
With that white rope tied around your neck
You mistake me for some southern goddess
Some Delta girl done wrong
But I'm fixin' the knot through whatever I have to
To stay silent, get gone
One, two, three, I hate me
There's no one else who I know how to be
Four, five, six, oh your body makes me sick
Don't take it away from me just yet
There's no one I can think of
That I can stand less than you
Don't you want to touch my hands before you go?
I think I'm confused
I can feel my food digestin'
And I'm beggin' it to cease
My stomach's crushed against my lungs and you're, you're pushin' at my seams
And I seen the way you eye me up
Like a chunk of meat, like a chunk of meat gone bad
Like you were wishing I was something still worth having
You can go ahead, go ahead and have
One, two, three, I still hate me
There's no one else who I know how to be
Four, five, six, oh your body makes me sick
Don't take it away from me just yet
There's no one I can think of
That I can stand less than you
Don't you want to touch my hands before you go?
I think I'm confused
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