Questo disco mi offre la possibilità di esulare, brevemente, dal contesto meramente musicale. Quando penso a ''This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours'' penso a Picasso, e al cosiddetto ''periodo blu''.
Blu è il colore della copertina del disco, blu quello delle opere di Picasso; ''blu'' lo stato d'animo della band, ''blu'' quello del pittore. E, ironia della sorte, a connotare cotanto stato d'animo vi è lo stesso motivo: la scomparsa di un amico.
L'amico di Picasso, Carlos Casagemas si era suicidato; L'amico dei Manics, Richey Edwards, forse... Si dice che si sia buttato giù dal Severn Bridge, ma il suo corpo non è mai stato ritrovato... Motivo in più per alimentare il senso di vuoto e di angoscia che ha afflitto (e affligge) la band e i fans. Per carità, non che i Manics abbiano mai avuto un ''periodo rosa'', ma prima non erano così tristi! Prima facevano ROCK, erano ribelli, erano folli, per certi versi erano cool. Quel geniaccio di James Dean Bradfield suonava come Slash e cantava con la rabbia di Joe Strummer; ora i suoi assoli sono dimezzati e le sue urla sono più malinconiche che arrabbiate; ora è il 1998 e i Manics sono rimasti in tre. Nel pluripremiato ''Everything Must Go'' che faceva da ''trait d'union'' tra il periodo ''angry'' (The Holy Bible su tutti) e quello ''blu'' (culminato con LifeBlood, tuttavia in modo diverso), la presenza di Richey era ancora viva, come dimostrano gli ultimi suoi testi che figurano nell'album. Qui, invece, la composizione è tutta farina del sacco della premiata ditta Bradfield-Wire-Moore. Ne deriva un album ''invernale'': malinconico, riflessivo, sommesso.
Il disco si apre con ''The Everlasting'' l'intro di batteria, quasi un ticchettìo d'orologio, sembra in perfetta sintonia con il tema della canzone: l'incedere inesorabile del tempo. È una ballata stupenda, nella quale la voce di James è impreziosita dagli archi e completata da un memorabile assolo di chitarra. Segue ''If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next'', vera hit single dell'album, e forse dell'intera carriera della band. All'epoca fu un piccolo tormentone e, complice un video efficace, riscosse discreti consensi anche da parte di MTV Italia. La canzone trae ispirazione dalla guerra civile spagnola, ma il significato è facilmente intuibile dal titolo stesso. Meriterebbe un 10 soltanto per i cori che concludono il pezzo.
Mai come in quest'album i Manics hanno azzeccato la scelta dei singoli anche se, fatta eccezione per ''If You tolerate this'', dal punto di vista commerciale hanno deluso le aspettative. Lo confermano ''You Stole The Sun From My Heart'' e ''Tsunami'', due canzoni molto orecchiabili entrambe caratterizzate da ritornelli mestamente grintosi. Affascinante il tema di quest'ultima: lo Tsunami rappresenta forse l'onda che ha sconvolto gli equilibri della band, a causa della scomparsa di Richey; tuttavia, Nicky Wire (bassista) ha adesso la possibilità di rivendicare la propria identità di autore dei testi della band. Onda distruttrice o onda purificatrice? Il pathos resta ad alti livelli anche in ''Ready For Drowning'', canzone decisamente all'altezza dei singoli, mentre ''My Little Empire'', in cui gli arpeggi di chitarra di James prendono il sopravvento sulla sua voce (è la canzone vocalmente più sommessa dell'album), e il lento incedere di ''I'm Not Working'' contribuiscono a smorzare un pò i toni.
Con ''You're Tender And You're Tired'' i Nostri tornano ai livelli di ''The Everlasting'': un'altra pregevole ballata, più ritmata ma più triste, accompagnata dal riverbero, forse voluto, del pianoforte e dalla superba voce di James (come sono lontani i tempi di "Motown Junk, You Love Us, Faster..."). In ''Born A Girl'' un organetto e le note delicate della chitarra raccontano il desiderio represso di un uomo che avrebbe preferito nascere donna, quasi sottoforma di ninna nanna. ''Black Dog On My Shoulder'' (titolo ispirato ad una frase di Winston Churchill in riferimento alla depressione) è quello che proprio non ti aspetteresti dai Manic Street Preachers, come se i Sex Pistols si mettessero a suonare un pezzo di Richard Hawley; ''Be Natural'' e ''S.Y.M.M.'' (invettiva, quest'ultima, contro la polizia in riferimento alla tragedia dello stadio di Hillsborough) hanno una struttura un pò più complessa, e necessitano di più ascolti per essere apprezzate. Particolarmente prolissa con i suoi 6 minuti è ''S.Y.M.M.'', tuttavia è nobilitata da un assolo di chitarra vagamente ''Gilmouriano''.
L'ultima perla dell'album (penultima nella tracklist) è ''Nobody Loved You'', il pezzo più energico dell'album, in cui sembra che i Nostri abbiano cercato di reprimere o, almeno, controllare la rabbia per tutto il disco, per poi farla esplodere in questa canzone, in cui le urla di James e la distorsione della chitarra suonano quasi liberatorie, a dispetto della tristezza di cui è intriso il testo. Nel 1998 non ero nè carne, nè pesce. Questo album ha contribuito a sviluppare una mia identità musicale che, in quel periodo, ricercavo quasi affannosamente. Mi permetto di consigliarlo a tutti quelli che non storcono il naso di fronte alle evoluzioni stilistiche dei gruppi, e a chi nella musica non cerca risposte, ma spunti di riflessione.
Purtroppo in Italia i Manics non godono della giusta considerazione, eppure in Gran Bretagna sono dei veri e propri idoli. Poi penso che in Italia hanno successo i Blue, e loro vengono dalla Gran Bretagna... penso a chi si strappa i capelli per loro, e penso ai Manics che, proprio con quella canzone che ce li aveva fatti conoscere anche in Italia, cantavano ''Gravity keeps my head down or is it maybe shame at being so young and being so vain'', così ho smesso di cercare risposte (almeno nella musica)...
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 The Everlasting (06:09)
The gap that grows between our lives
The gap our parents never had
Stop those thoughts control your mind
Replace the things that you despise
Oh, you're old, I hear you say
It doesn't mean that I don't care
I don't believe in it anymore
Pathetic acts for a worthless cause
In the beginning when we were winning
When our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning
When our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven
The everlasting
Everlasting
The world is full of refugees
They're just like you just like me
But as people we have a choice
To end the void with all its force
So don't forget or don't pretend
It's all the same now in the end
It was said in a different life
Destroys my days and haunts my nights
In the beginning when we were winning
When our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning
When our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven
The everlasting
Everlasting
In the beginning when we were winning
When our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning
When our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven
The everlasting
Everlasting
But now unforgiven
The everlasting
Everlasting
02 If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (04:50)
The future teaches you to be alone
The present to be afraid and cold
So if I can shoot rabbits
Then I can shoot fascists
Bullets for your brain today
But we'll forget it all again
Monuments put from pen to paper
Turns me into a gutless wonder
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next
Will be next
Will be next
Gravity keeps my head down
Or is it maybe shame
At being so young and being so vain
Holes in your head today
But I'm a pacifist
I've walked Las Ramblas
But not with real intent
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next
Will be next
Will be next
Will be next
And on the street tonight an old man plays
With newspaper cuttings of his glory days
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next
Will be next
Will be next
03 You Stole the Sun From My Heart (04:20)
Drinking water to stay thin
or is it to purify?
I love you all the same
But there's no, no real truce with my fury
you don't have to believe me
I love you all the same
But you stole the sun from my heart
You stole the sun from my heart
Oh, you stole the sun from my heart
You stole the sun from, you stole the sun from
You have broken through my armour
and I don't have an answer
I love you all the same
I paint the things I want to see
but it don't come easy
I love you all the same
But you stole the sun from my heart
You stole the sun from my heart
Oh, you stole the sun from my heart
You stole the sun from, you stole the sun from
Think I'm lost among the undergrowth
and so much so I woke up
I love you all the same
But you stole the sun from my heart
You stole the sun from my
Oh, you stole the sun from my heart
You stole the sun from, you stole the sun from
I have got to stop smiling
It gives the wrong impression
I love you all the same
04 Ready for Drowning (04:32)
Here's a true story, said someone to me yesterday
Said he'd heard it in a taxi
Must have had him at my mercy
Drown that poor thing
Put it out of its misery
Condemn it to its future
Deny its history
Deny its history
So where are we going?
We're not ready for drowning
So where are we going?
We're not ready for drowning
Look through my Venetian blinds
Dusting the past off my mind
Seeing orange everywhere
I'd go to Patagonia, but it's harder there
I'll do anything to prove I care
Fascinated by good
Destroyed by evil
What is there to believe in?
So where are we going?
We're not ready for drowning
So where are we going?
We're not ready for drowning
So where are we going?
We're not ready for drowning
So where are we going?
We are not waving, we are drowning
05 Tsunami (03:51)
For you my dear sister
Holding onto me forever
Disco dancing with the rapists
Your only crime is silence
Can't work at this anymore
Can't move I want to stay at home
Tied up to all these crutches
Never far from your hands
Tsunami tsunami came washing over me
Tsunami tsunami came washing over me
Can't speak, can't think, won't talk, won't walk
Doctors tell me that I'm cynical
I tell them that it must be chemical
So what am I doing girl
Cry into my drink I disappear
Eyes for teeth grating over me
Bring down the shadows of my mind
Sleep and breathe under our sheets
Inhale the anxiety in-between, in-between, in-between, in-between
Tsunami tsunami came washing over me
Tsunami tsunami came washing over me
Tsunami tsunami came washing over me
Tsunami tsunami came washing over me
Through September under the weather
In-between, in-between, in-between, in-between
Tsunami tsunami came washing over me
Tsunami tsunami came washing over me
Tsunami tsunami came washing over me
Tsunami tsunami came washing over me
Take the GI's I will have the spies
08 You're Tender and You're Tired (04:37)
You're so fragile tonight
Been up hurting all night
It's not trivial like they think
Yes you're desperate and hurt
Thought about it so many times
Too afraid to open your eyes
To see the sadness that's inside
Just sit back in and stop time
You're tender and you're tired
You can't be bothered to decide
Whether you live or die
Or just forget about your life
But it's too late to be real
No time to be strong enough
Just time to leave it all behind
Memory has become pain
Rebuild the void with flowers
Sad eye destruction built around sand and sea
Yes you can build yourself around
Build yourself around me
You're tender and you're tired
You can't be bothered to decide
Whether you live or doe
Or just forget about your life
Drift away and die
Never say goodbye
Drift away and die
10 Be Natural (05:13)
Been natural
For once in my life
Now I'll have to
Swallow some pride
Know that I should
Never give advice
But it's too late now
To say goodbye
Be natural
Don't want any friends
Be natural
Come on and hit me again
Be natural
I'm repeating myself
Be natural
Is there anything else
Star bright keep me safe
Today and tonight
No water tastes like lemonade
Slowly, slowly
It starts to fade
Be natural
With me tonight
Be natural
Put your fists in my eyes
Be natural
So turn me into stone
Be natural
Just leave me alone
Grown up
Or backwards born
Into eternity
And black holes
Floating around
Up here on my own
Screaming at me
Forever unknown
Be natural(repeat 3x)
Been natural
Is there anyone else
13 S.Y.M.M. (06:16)
The subtext of this song
I've thought about it for so long
But it's really not the sort of thing
That people want to hear us sing
The context of this song
Well I could go on and on
But it's still unfashionable
To believe in principles
South South Yorkshire - mass murderer
How can you sleep at night, sleep at night
South South Yorkshire - mass murderer
How can you sleep at night, sleep at night
The reason for this song
Well maybe it's a pointless one
But thank you Jimmy McGovern
For reminding me of what lives on
The ending for this song
Well I haven't really thought of one
There's nothing I could ever say
That could really take the pain away
South South Yorkshire - mass murderer
How can you sleep at night, sleep at night
South South Yorkshire - mass murderer
How can you sleep at night, sleep at night
14 Socialist Serenade (04:12)
Socalist Serenade Lyrics
What's the point in an education
When you have to pay for the privilege?
This side of the truth where no sun shines
They don't count the cripples and the blind
I was thinking everybody had a chance
Like a dream stretched way too far
All this time such a debt to the city
I don't know who's the real enemy
This is a socialist serenade
Yes I have money but I hate champagne
This is a socialist serenade
I can't see the past anywhere
Some greater benefit for the people
Ha ha ha ha we all believed in you
Is it about the politics of celebrity
Or endless days in the sun of Tuscany
This is a socialist serenade
Yes I have money but I hate champagne
This is a socialist serenade
I can't see the past anywhere, anywhere
This is a socialist serenade
Yes I have money but I hate champagne
This is a socialist serenade
I can't see the past anywhere, anywhere
Change your name to New
Forget the fucking Labour
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di GrantNicholas
"The Everlasting è fra i migliori pezzi scritti in quegli anni, una splendida ballata con archi e voce stupenda."
"Memorabile, indipendentemente dalla propria fede politica, il verso 'If I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists'."
