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Il periodo dell’anno che preferisco è la fine dell’estate: le giornate continuano ad essere rischiarate e riscaldate dal sole, ma non sono più soffocanti, e le serate iniziano ad essere più fresche.
A farmi prediligere questo particolare momento è ancor più la luce: quella luce morbida e un po’ sghemba, che ti si impiglia tra i capelli e non ne vuole sapere di andarsene, che sfuma e ammorbidisce gli angoli. Una luce vivida, ma con discrezione, che quasi a volersi scusare per la bella stagione che si appresta a portar via con sé, ci ammalia lasciando presagire uno scorcio dell’opulenza dei colori dell’autunno prossimo a venire.
In una di queste sere azzurre di fine estate, incamminatevi a piedi scalzi lungo i sentieri d’erba.
Calpestando gli steli aguzzi, che si spezzeranno al peso del vostro passaggio, vi sentirete vivi e liberi e fortunati di esserci, nello spazio-tempo del “qui” e dell’”ora”.
Portate con voi una coperta, una bottiglia di buon vino, tutti i vostri amori perduti, i rimpianti, i rimorsi, le vostre stranezze, le amarezze, le risate immotivate e quelle che salgono dal profondo del cuore, e soprattutto non dimenticate “Sunny Border Blue” di Kristin Hersh.
Fate partire la prima traccia, rilassatevi e stendetevi a contare ad una ad una le stelle: l’amore infinito vi salirà nell’anima, e andrete lontano, molto lontano, come uno zingaro.
L’album della mia Throwing Muse preferita (l’altra, Tanya Donelly, non mi ha mai convinta molto, da solista), va ascoltato così, per rendere al meglio. Se poi avete dei crucci di cuore, e un momento siete depressi e quello successivo vorreste commettere un omicidio, ancora meglio, aderirete come colla allo stato d’animo di Kristin all’epoca in cui compose quest’opera.
Musica cantautoriale americana, indie-folk che a me ricorda le atmosfere care a Elliott Smith, Portland, Oregon, e qualcosa di Polly Jean Harvey. Disco licenziato dalla 4AD, un’etichetta da cui ho sempre attinto a piene mani, datato ormai 2001, ma che vale ancora la pena ascoltare e/o conoscere, perché racchiude dei piccoli tesori, composti, arrangiati, suonati e interpretati da questa piccola, grande donna. Che passa con disinvoltura dalla chitarra acustica a quella elettrica, dai fiati al pianoforte. Ma che incanta in particolare con la sua voce dal timbro infantile, che sfrigola come carta vetrata su pelle e anima.
Uno dei brani più riusciti è di sicuro l’opening “Your Dirty Answer”, dove già si presagiscono gli improvvisi cambi di tempo e gli sbalzi d’umore che caratterizzano l’intero album. Canzone che parte in sordina per poi arrabbiarsi, senza soluzione di continuità. “Non è colpa mia, non è colpa mia se non mi ami quando sono ubriaca. Sono pulita, sono così stanca…sopportami ancora per un pochino.”, canta Kristin.
“Spain”, a seguire, è a mio parere la canzone migliore del disco, e ne racchiude l’essenza in una frase che trafigge, nel finale: “I wanted you to sleep with her and hate yourself, instead of me.” E dire che era partita come il sogno di una vacanza polverosa in Spagna, per rimettere insieme dei pezzi che insieme non vanno e non stanno più, a quanto pare.
“Silica” e “Summer Salt” sono episodi leggeri e solari, che a suo tempo qualcuno aveva definito “dreamy pop”, se vogliamo per forza appiccicare un’etichetta a tutto – per inciso e incidentalmente, mi sono sempre chiesta che bisogno ci sia di farlo, quando l’unica cosa che importa è:“Mi trasmette qualcosa o mi lascia fredda (freddo)? – e in particolare l’ultima delle due song vanta un testo che ho sempre trovato molto spassoso. Parla di tornare indietro, all’epoca in cui eravamo puliti come neonati, per tentare di agire da sobri, ma poi spunta una “toxic thing” che di sicuro verrà annusata volentieri a rendere tutto più movimentato… Mrs. Hersh sa bene a cosa si sta riferendo, e no, non si tratta del sale citato nel titolo.
E l’affermazione successiva, quella per cui “for an ugly boy you sure look pretty” è un’inoppugnabile verità, immantinente ed eterna.
Come d’altro canto è altrettanto vero che è facile, molto facile, ritrovarsi a dormire con “idiots and prophets”, come afferma lapidaria in “Ruby”, altra bella traccia.
Le altre canzoni sono più intimiste e riconducibili alla linea generale seguita da questo lavoro, che si chiude con una “Listerine” lisergica e disillusa, intensa e tesa, passando per una perla incastonata nell’insieme con estrema nonchalance, la cover di “Trouble” di Cat Stevens.
“Le cose si rompono in continuazione. Bicchieri, piatti, unghie. Le promesse. I cuori.”, sostiene la scrittrice Jodi Picoult. Se è vero (mio dio, com’è vero!), “Sunny Border Blue” sembra essere stato composto apposta per ricordarcelo, con una discreta dose dell’ironia necessaria in questi frangenti.
Se ne avete voglia, mettetelo nell’agenda degli ascolti di fine settembre.
P.S. Un ringraziamento sentito e speciale al grande M’sieur Arthur per avermi fornito ispirazione e parole illuminanti per scrivere questa recensione.
Elenco tracce e testi
01 Your Dirty Answer (05:24)
You know how it feels when the real world encroaches
Rubbing elbows with the unemployed and you
You're so beautiful
You're so rude
Peeling mangos on a fold out couch
I'm scooped out
You're inscrutable
You're all mine
Swimming is a 'lude
Wine opens your mind
Your guitar's a race car
Sex is your best friend
What's your dirty answer?
My fantasies are unloved histories
You know what it's like when mistakes go unmade
It was beautiful
It was you
I'm giving up the ugly
I thought you'd make pretty
I'll be goddamned
This is beautiful
Hold my hand
Swimming is a 'lude
Wine opens your mind
Your guitar's a race car
Sex is your best friend
What's your dirty answer ?
I don't judge people
I just watch them 'til it's time to look away
I want to look away now
Somebody's coming
I don't want to look backwards,
I don't want to even look backwards
It's not my fault
It's not my fault you don't love me
It's not my fault you don't love me
When I'm drunk
I'm wiped
I'm so tired
Carry me for a little while
02 White Suckers (04:25)
We were awake together all night long
Sharing paraphernalia 'till dawn
You didn't dissapoint me Not at all
You never disappoint me
You lubricate the morning
Shining and yawning
You were nice but twisted the same old story
We were a match made in purgatory
You didn't disappoint me
Totally
You never disappoint me
You animate the morning
Shining and yawning
You come off like a distant moth
Aimless and driven
Yet you seem to be living it up
Walking around in your busted shoes
Like you've got nothing better to do
I don't like I was I don't know what I've become
But shaken out of my pallour I'm filled up
You didn't disappoint me
Not once
You never disappoint me
you mutilate the morning
Shining and yawning
You run by like a spazzing fly
Shameless and smiling
Yeah, you seem to be living it up
Driving around in your souped-up jeep
Like you've got somewhere better to be
03 Ruby (04:06)
Everybody was so pretty there
And up and jumping around
And easy it's easy to sleep
With idiots and prophets
Leaves me wondering
Ruby or iridescent cough drop?
This baby's like a winter bird, raunchy and sweet
With snowflakes melting in his hair
The boys are supermen
Wondering
Ruby or iridescent cough drop?
You're the great convincer, should I do this, am I good?
You can smell a fever, shold I do this, am I good?
Let's dive
All the way down
The two of us are old paint,
My grandmother's horse
Still alive, still kicking, not allowed to work
'Til we become beauty
A fluid medium
04 Flipside (03:58)
There's always drooling zombies
Or at least on dick
I'm having trouble focusing
'Cause all I see in front of me is
You when we're finally alone
He was the bone king
Dead to all the world
Maybe dead's like being
Really high without th low
But I enjoy hangovers here
I could see them on the flipside of a molecule
But I have all the energy I can take for now
Holy floating
We're holy floating
Holy shit I think I'd rather be on the ground than flying
We're still fucking up in a healthy way for now
How dare you save my life
Then try to break my heart
You make alone so goddamn lonely
Makes me want to fall in love with
Everything and float above the ground
These days I do the same thing
Commit the same damn crime
If I'm not feeling out the flipside
Maybe I'm supposed to be here,
Maybe you're supposed to be here too
I could see them on the flipside of a molecule
But I have all the energy I can take for now
Holy floating
We're holy floating
Holy shit I think I'd rather be on the ground than flying
We're still fucking up in a healthy way for now
And my feet dont touch the ground
07 37 Hours (03:27)
By now, I should know where you're going
By now I should but I don't
You're better off wherever you are off to
Agile or stoned
By now, I should wake you when I'm hungry
Right now I should but I'm not
We could be a silkworm tightrope
We could but we're not
I don't want this to be over
You're what I do
Every day the only thing
That makes any sense
Your liver twisting logic's
Far and away the smartest thing
I don't know where I am
Plus I don't know when I am
'cause you insist on using f**ked up military time
'cause you are better off alone
I've been right here for 37 hours
I dropped a cigarette in my shoe
And dove in the water
Then I swam until my hair dreaded
Like flying on fire
That day I quit smoking and swimming
I heard some advice from above
Ducking under cramming it in
Isn't falling in love
I don't want this to be over
You're what I do
Everyday the only thing
That makes any sense
Your lover twister logic
Far and away the smartest thing
I don't know where I am
Plus I don't know when I am
'cause you insist on using f**ked up military time
'cause you are better off alone
I've been right here for 37 hours
08 Silica (04:23)
Let the ache out
Spread it around
You want to fly him in
You want him
Play a grownup
'Til you grow up
If you could you would
I swallowed some bad voodoo
Caught it in the gut
Wish you were here
Wish I was not
You hear someone wanting you
How can I fume
Then be bursting with kindness?
A gracious cocoon in the shadows
We're in good company
Us lefty Lucy's
Play a grownup
'Til you grow up
If you could you would
This is a touch prayer
Praying for you
Wish you were here
Wish I was too
Come see how okay we are
Come see how okay we can be
Picture her Silica
Lifting her shirt to the sun
Cherry neck sea
Easy now
10 Summer Salt (04:07)
Let's back up and act like we're sober
Newborn clean
Head over heals for a cold blooded creature
Limbic somersaults
For a toxic thing you sure smell pretty
Summer, salt and wine
For an ugly boy you sure look pretty
A cowboy frankenstein
I dreamt you were playing along
I dreamt you were playing along
I dreamt you were playing along
In your dreams
When it's touch and go you blow your wad
Like no one ever fails
For a quiet boy you sure talk dirty
A velvet bed of nails
I dreamt you were playing along
I dreamt you were playing along
I dreamt you were playing along
In your dreams
While I did nifty somersaults
You were thinking after all
After it all
I don't have to talk
I don't have to talk
But when I do and this is true
There's nothing I won't say
11 Trouble (03:25)
( Cat Stevens )
Trouble
Oh trouble set me free
I have seen your face
And it's too much too much for me
Trouble
Oh trouble can't you see
You're eating my heart away
And there's nothing much left of me
I've drunk your wine
You have made your world mine
So won't you be fair
So won't you be fair
I don't want no more of you
So won't you be kind to me
Just let me go where
I'll have to go there
Trouble
Oh trouble move away
I have seen your face
And it's too much for me today
Trouble
Oh trouble can't you see
You have made me a wreck
Now won't you leave me in my misery
I've seen your eyes
And I can see death's disguise
Hangin' on me
Hangin' on me
I'm beat, I'm torn
Shattered and tossed and worn
Too shocking to see
Too shocking to see
Trouble
Oh trouble move from me
I have paid my debt
Now won't you leave me in my misery
Trouble
Oh trouble please be kind
I don't want no fight
And I haven't got a lot of time
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