• Voto:
Chi mi ha visto per mesi andare al lavoro seduto in treno con le cuffie del mio iPod nelle orecchie e le labbra che salmodiavano seguendo i brani, mentre facevo fatica a tenere fermo il corpo non poteva sapere che stavo ascoltando questo gustosissimo album. Peccato per loro...
Inutile girarci attorno: mi piace perché è pop, ma rockeggia, perché è un album vario e piacevole, fatto di canzoni che ti restano dentro e che ti fanno muovere il cuore e il corpo. La ricetta di questi circa 50 minuti di buona musica è semplice: Kori Gardner e Jason Hammel da San Francisco, marito e moglie, due voci che cantano e si controcantano, si cercano, si sovrappongono, condite con suono d'organo a profusione, un pianoforte e batteria. Esatto niente basso e chitarra: limitante, ma coraggioso. "Io un disco senza basso non l'ascolto!" vi avrei dato ragione, ma il trucco sta nello sparare l'organo ultra distorto ed il groove è assicurato, provare per credere.
Inutile tirare in ballo i White Stripes: siamo su territori totalmente differenti, decisamente più pop, ma di quello arruffato. E un duo che ha la capacità di costruire pezzi che partono solari e che ti avvolgono poi in un banco di nebbia (l'iniziale "Think Long", che nel momento clou da ballata midtempo prende un incedere marziale), irresistibilmente catchy e ballabili (le imprescindibili "Fraud In The '80s", "For The Actor", "Punchlines"), ma tutti con quell'indole da anthem che ti obbliga a cantare i ritornelli ad alta voce ("Beautiful Dreamer", "Nature And The Wreck", "So Many Ways"). Contribuisce grandemente una scrittura semplice, ma ricca (chi ha detto beatlesiana?), in cui il suono dell'organo apre alla melodia spazi altrimenti difficilmente raggiungibili, grazie anche all'uso corale delle voci, portatore di reminiscenze punk.
Sarebbe troppo partigiano per me non ammettere che uno dei limiti principali di questo disco è nel suono della batteria che spesso è proprio buttato lì: anni di ascolto di rock ti fanno capire che se della batteria ti ostini ad usare il solo rullante senza toccare i tom, il basso a supporto ci vuole, punto. Questa scelta stilistica obbliga a riempire con qualcos'altro, che può essere una parte vocale in controcanto o una scampanellata di organo: alla lunga, inutile dirlo, il giochetto risulta scontato ed un po' stancante. Non che tutto questo mini la fruibilità complessiva, ma lascia adito al dubbio che se si liberassero di questi limiti riuscirebbero in opere qualitativamente ancora superiori, dato che i numeri per fare bene i 'Mates Of State' ce li hanno tutti.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Think Long (04:44)
On our picture shelves.
(Get on, or get out)
Statues mocking me.
How am I supposed to feel?
How am I not put at ease?
Talk yourself to sleep.
Fall into it deep.
I will wash off mine with rolling waves of worry.
It doesn't have to feel so wrong.
Bethany you're riding this one to its grave (the gates).
You never understood the difference between someone's beating and refusal to trade
Bless these tangled veins.
(Get on, or get out).
None of which will grow the same.
Now am I supposed to fake it?
Now are you so poised, at ease?
Think long, think, thinkg long, think think.
Can you feel it surround me?
I think it'll drown me.
And I wonder how you could say that we (you) really owe you (us) anything.
Think long, think, think long, think think.
03 Like U Crazy (03:58)
I like you crazy.
You crazy.
Ahhh, I'm suffering lonely ones too, and I can't resist sending/saying this on a whim.
Ahhh, there's a compulsion to mend.
Write on the wall, my loudest pen goes.
I can't wait to say all the things you can't see, all the things that make you better.
'Cause I can say all the things that make you.
I like you crazy.
You crazy.
Hot summers repeating.
Bubs noticing bees in the air.
Won't get off this rail, then great hope remains honestly.
Observing the critic, I knew you had plenty to say.
I could not resist watching you with him.
I can't wait to say all the things you can't see that make you better.
I like you crazy.
04 Beautiful Dreamer (04:39)
You're spending too long.
The people were wrong.
They don't even know we're moving on.
I just want to feel the taste of the meal, and not the routine of dining here.
We'll be so sorry, if we got to the shadow of death having missed all the sun on your face.
It's thrilling for you now.
Na na na na na na na na na.
We do it all the time, do all the time.
We're the dreamer in the beautiful mess.
I just want to feel the taste of the meal, and not the routine of dining here.
Let's lay here awhile.
All the sounds will compile.
Forgetting to sleep, we ponder this.
Here's an alibi.
We love the voices don't know why.
There was a time we lived in truth.
Let's bring it back.
05 What It Means (02:25)
I know what it means.
It's a king on his feet with a cavalier face, such a funny place.
He's exhausted and shrewd, not a man on the move.
Just give him a pen.
And I can honestly say no.
As he can honestly fight.
And this red ink ain't dry, 'cause this cloth it's not right.
Where you coming from?
But this day it will end, gather up all his friends and show-off a smile.
06 For the Actor (04:33)
Oh, you and me on a fantasy.
This is what it's like on a fantasy.
No, I wouldn't challenge your home.
In the basement of words we knew, there were more of us.
Don't want to make you grow numb.
If it's not what you thought it was, legs are for discovering.
Relieved and now we see the road.
This is what's like on a fantasy.
Little codes bring the balance to none.
And the shapes of your hands do tell of such a rare variety.
You put your life on hold as we interest one another.
Two steps closer to the level I imagined.
I remember when it poured and you sang to me in summer.
It's a fantasy.
07 Nature and the Wreck (02:22)
Lying down I notice what you see below us.
Your arms are like the trees.
I know I haven't said enough.
I know we haven't said enough.
How I will protect, and how each day matters.
Spying shows your limbs caught in the rails.
These simple games will soon be growing tales.
And I know we haven't said enough.
I know I haven't said too much.
How I will protect and how each day matters to me.
Since the wreck, I know more what you need.
You need me to put you in the trees.
I know we haven't said enough but I know I've never loved this much.
08 So Many Ways (03:56)
There are only so many ways to earn your own surprise.
I know we're giving up too soon.
There are only so many ways to float upon the sea.
It makes no difference to me.
It must be pretty nice my fellow man.
We'll miss you much.
I think we overestimate our places underground.
Ooo, done.
Dust.
There are only so many ways to earn your own surprise.
It's written down and cannot be changed, if that's what you believe.
I know we're giving up too soon.
I'm never coming here again.
It makes no difference to me.
There are only so many ways to float upon the sea.
Or collapse on Union Street, I know that you'll be there.
I know there's beauty in the fool.
So I'll keep reminding you'll agree.
It must be pretty nice within your clan, I'll miss you much.
Nothing and everything.
Oh, oh what have you given me?
Nothing and everything.
Done.
09 Punchlines (03:53)
Waiting close by the door for us
Can't hardly see out but if you could
You'd make it all worth our while
Punchlines you've been saving up for some 90 years
Waiting close by the door for us
Can't hardly see out but if you could
You'd make it all worth our while
Punchlines take pity on me
It's not the same without you around
It's not the same without you
Waiting close by the door for us
Can't hardly see out but if you could
You'd make it all worth our while
Punchlines you've been saving up for some 90 years
Waiting close by the door for us
Can't hardly see out but if you could
You'd make it all worth our while
Punchlines take pity on me
It's not the same without you around
It's not the same without you
I've been thinking it's an afterthought
Get into the car and you aim it at the sun, boy
Can't you hear me in the aftermath
Get into the car and you point it at the west
10 Running Out (06:51)
You have the upper hand to open up the door
Running out, running out.
Running out shouldn't give youth back.
I have a hardened chain connected to my arms.
Running out, shouldn't pull apart.
Let's trade this tired home, for all it's worth in paper.
Running out, you react.
Tired of singing.
Oooh oooh oooh.
You're tied up, (never) tied of singing.
Tired of singing.
Revolutionary minds, never know to draw the line.
Running out, like a fire so sweet.
This will bring you closer (you want it).
Imitating Bransby imitating them.
This will bring you closer, never have to say it.
Tired of singing.
Carico i commenti... con calma
