Jesse Malin è nato a Brooklyn e racconta storie di bevute, emozioni, amori sfasciati e drop-outs disperati, con quel tipico fare che solo chi è nato e cresciuto in quel caos in technicolor potrebbe avere. Nei suoi tableaux musicali traspaiono un'ironia, un sentimento e un candido entusiasmo che a tratti ricordano l'alter-ego esaltato di John Fante in "Ask the Dust".
Il pezzo che apre il disco, "Queen of the Underworld", è una ballata piena di ritmo, che - quando uscirà come primo singolo il 20 Gennaio - potrebbe conquistare un discreto indice di programmazione radiofonica.
"Riding on the Subway" (track n. 7), inizia con un ritmo sensuale, seppur un po' banale, e si trasforma in una colonna sonora di un mini-film che racconta di incontri casuali e di quello che avrebbero potuto essere. Forse un niente. Forse quello che tutti abbiamo provato almeno una volta nella vita.
Malin è un troubadour contemporaneo, ispirato musicalmente da Young, Waits e Dylan. Dal vivo è ironico, caustico, con uno humor alla Joe Pesci che riesce a intrattenere il pubblico per piú di un'ora senza alcun problema e che raccomando caldamente di andare a sentire quando il prossimo Marzo verrà in Italia.
Per una demente scatenata come chi scrive, il genere di Jesse Malin è un po' troppo "tranquillo", lento, ma non della stessa lentezza cupa e simbolica delle "Field Songs" di Mark Lanegan, che s'addice meglio alla personalità della sottoscritta. Ma questo e' un parere strettamente personale.
"The Fine Art of Self Destruction" (One Little Indian Records) è senza dubbio un ottimo album, la produzione di Ryan Adams contribuisce a creare un album allo stesso tempo crudo e romantico, da "ascoltare" attentamente per capirne a fondo l'onesto approccio e l'inusuale profondità.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Queen of the Underworld (03:42)
You say you want a revolution
Something you can touch
Like an age old contradiction
With alcohol and lust
And all the things you have are broken
And you can't go back if they've moved
From dysfunction to this function
You know I'm singing just for you
Queen of the underworld
Took a ride on the tilt-a-whirl
Meanwhile another girl
Out on the street you hear their laughter
And pretty green eyes have turned to blue
Everything you've heard I've gotten
Persecution's nothing new
Queen of the underworld
Took awhile baby to unfurl
Meanwhile another girl
Queen of the underworld
I never got an invitation
Never heard too much
I'm gonna make a reservation
But I'm not in a rush
And all across this alien nation
Or in a town called Resume Speed
Out on the highway of perfection
We only wanted to be free
Queen of the underworld, etc.
Don't turn around
03 Downliner (04:10)
That's the way you know the story goes
Between euphoria and the afterglow
I don't believe in what the good book says
I close my eyes and then I go to bed
With funny memories and a broken nose
Lots of baggage and not much clothes
The shrink the gypsy the poet the priest
Everybody wants to be released
And I know time was gonna change us
So slow life would rearrange us
Lately it's alright
Down here with me
People at midnight pretend their free
Maybe it's all gone
I'm holding on
Ooh it ain't so funny after all
Ooh it ain't so funny after all we've been through
Ooh it ain't so funny after all
That's the way you know the story goes
A box of flowers decompose
And you and me you know we don't talk much
It's hard to handle something you can't touch
And I know time was gonna change us
Lately it's alright
Down here with me
People at midnight pretend their free
Maybe it's all gone
I'm holding on
How was I to know
The future's black as coal?
How was I to see if you were still with me?
Downliner
Down to the sea
Downliner
Down here with me
Downliner, etc.
04 Wendy (03:27)
Wendy left me all alone
No postcard or telephone
Wintertime down by the beach
In a jukebox bar way out of reach
She liked Tom Waits and the poet's hat
Sixties Kinks and Kerouac
Through the night her tailights fade
Her selection never played
I don't know I don't know I don't know why
Checkin' the tears and the light in your eyes
I don't know I don't know I don't know
If my little baby will make it alone
Wendy took me with a smile
Country lips and Bacall style
Through Tangiers or to Bombay
Her self-portrait in the USA
I don't know I don't know I don't know why
Checkin' the tears and the light in your eyes
I don't know I don't know I don't know
If my little baby will make it alone
Dreams
Dyin' slowly
We don't want to be alone
Dreams
Dark and holy
We don't want to be alone
Thinking the things that I can't erase
Hole in my heart and a gun in my face
Feeling the things that I can't describe
I don't know I don't know I don't know why
Dreams
Dyin' slowly
We don't want to be alone
Dreams
Dark and holy
We don't want to be alone
Wendy
Let down
Wendy
Get down
I don't know I don't know I don't know why, etc.
05 Brooklyn (04:35)
The last car on the line
I guess you're back doing time
The ghost of Christmas past
Left Walt Whitman in the trash
You started out with nothing but lonely days
You used to like the sad songs of doom and gloom
You started with nothing but throwaways
You couldn't live with me so you moved to
Brooklyn
Artificial desserts
Some have cars some have kids
Hit the pathmark after work
Some never been past the bridge
You started out with nothing but lonely days
You used to like the sad songs of doom and gloom
You started with nothing but throwaways
You couldn't live with me so you moved to
Brooklyn
I sometimes lie awake until sunrise
Wondering how we become what we despise
No more couches to surf
Only beaches in your dreams
No more trannies near work
It's still a drag walking in Queens
It's all blood money in the bank
Somehow some people find the nerve
Like the soldiers they thank down in DC
If I could only find the words
06 The Fine Art of Self Destruction (03:54)
I'm a witness to the sickness
In a place I call my home
On the weekend hit the deep end
With the secrets that I own
Like an old song with a new girl
She never gets the jokes
But you need her so you bleed her
For the image it evokes
Lonely process
Only process
I will make it up to you
Took a long walk
For a tall boy
Sinking down in the couch
Playing new wave like the old days
Put the barrel in your mouth
Like a sad man when he's deadpan
Never knew a work of art
Or a father with his children
A marriage that blew apart
Lonely process
Only process
I will make it up
I will take it up to you
Oh the old time TV movies
Thinking you got it made
Like a dancer with a desk job
A dee-jay with a list to play
I'm an old whore
In a thrift store
Looking for something black
Like a bad dream when you come clean
Hoping that you'll come back
Lonely process
Only process
I will make it up to you
10 Almost Grown (03:04)
My parents split up in the first grade
My father never did come back
My sister liked John Travolta
But I wanted Billy Jack
Throwing things off of the rooftops
40 buildings all the same
My mother took a job as a waitress
Swimming in the divorce age
When you're all alone
And you're all alone
When you're all alone and you're almost grown
Me and Holly snuck into night clubs
The politics of punk rock church
We were so idealistic
But somehow only saw the worst
When you're young and violent sick and silent
Hoping just to be admired
Water seeks its level of pain
And you're all alone
And you're all alone
And you're all alone
And you're almost grown
Some old friends retired too
But they still laugh about me and you
My mother's ashes went into the ocean
Scattered on a windy day
She used to like Frank Sinatra
Cigarettes and JFK
Some retired some expired some were meant
To be admired for a moment at a young age
But I don't care what they say others went and got away
I just want to see her again
When you're all alone
When you're all alone
When you're all alone
You're almost grown
When you're all alone and your heart is stone
11 Xmas (03:36)
Christmas is coming down
Ten dollar bill in my pocket
I let my baby down
I want to blast off like a rocket
People are on my way
Children await the surprise
I tried to hide my face
I tried to stop my eyes
I made my baby cry
I made her say goodbye
And the winter keeps coming back
As the rain begins to fall
And I know you're not coming back
But I had to make the call
You say you're not far away
You want to stay in touch
Well I could blame this holiday
But I miss you much too much
I tried to make it clean
Something inside wouldn't listen
My angel we walked in the snow
I woke from the dream you were missing
I made my baby cry
I made her say goodbye
And the winter keeps coming back
As the snow begins to fall
And I know you're not coming back
But I had to make the call
Maybe you're with someone else
And he's holding you tight
My reindeer that disappeared
I still hope you're alright
Christmas is coming down
People are on my way
It was sunny when I got out
To the street where the trees all lay
Christmas is coming down
Carico i commenti... con calma
