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Fa un po' di tristezza adesso leggere sulle riedizioni in CD degli album degli Screaming Trees l'adesivo "featuring Mark Lanegan from Queens of the Stone Age". Con le dovute proporzioni, sembra un po' come trovare sulla copertina di Led Zeppelin III la scritta "Con John Paul Jones dei Them Crooked Vultures". È un peccato che gli Screaming Trees vengano generalmente così poco considerati, io stesso li ho conosciuti tempo addietro solo qui su DeBaser per puro caso, alla ricerca di qualche gruppo grunge oltre ai soliti nomi arcinoti.
All'inizio non mi avevano catturato, solo dopo un paio d'anni, riprendendo in mano il disco, mi sono accorto di avere a che fare con un prodotto di vera qualità, frutto di un gruppo che può configurarsi senza dubbio tra i migliori esemplari rock confusamente etichettati come grunge.
Etichetta, quella grunge, in cui gli Screaming Trees, essendosi formati già nel 1985, appaiono come uno dei primi esempi. Il gruppo dello stato di Washington esordirà nello stesso anno con l'EP "Other Worlds", che già mostra il loro stile particolare di fusione tra garage rock ed elementi di psichedelia. "Clairvoyance", del 1986, è il loro primo full-lenght.
Un disco grezzo e forse immaturo, ma molto meno banale di quanto possa sembrare. La componente strettamente rock del disco consiste in sferragliamenti tipicamente grunge, inteso come irruento hard rock con elementi punk e metal. Complice ne è la scarna produzione, che non disturba però la godibilità del disco.
Elemento essenziale del disco è poi la psichedelia, espressa attraverso le tastiere di "The Turning" e "You Tell Me All These Things", i cori allucinogeni in "Orange Airplane" e, soprattutto, nei sapienti innesti melodici operati da azzeccati riff ed ampi e gustosi assoli di chitarra e nella fenomenale voce di Mark Lanegan, che bene si equilibrano con l'irruenza punk di basso e batteria. Per quanto grezzo ed immaturo possa infatti essere "Clairvoyance", le componenti diverse si mischiano alla perfezione, donando grande spessore al disco. Buona è anche l'eterogeneità del tutto: la calma ed ubriaca "Standing on the Edge", il sapore quasi heavy metal britannico di "Forever", l'allegra "Seeing and Believin", l'esplosivo finale di "Lonely Girl".
Un disco che, con tutta la sua qualità oggettiva, il suo valore storico e la sua semplice bellezza si finisce per amare. Gli amanti del rock duro ma non ignorante non dovrebbero farsi sfuggire questa perla rara.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 Orange Airplane (03:02)
Can't take a train you know they move too slow
Got to take to the airport where I want to go
Heart beating like a million miles an hour
Listening the wind is turning sweet to sour
Orange airplane
Take me to a new day
Little orange airplane
Take me to a new day
I land downtown in the middle of the day
I'm coming down hard so get out of the way
Looking up to heaven trying to find a clue
Said I'm too far gone, got to pay my dues on
An orange airplane
Take me to a new day
Come on
Little orange airplane
Take me to a new day
I'll be heading into orbit on a Sunday morning
My legs are broken and my ears are ringing
Orange airplane takes me to my home
Take me to the graveyard and bury my bones on
An orange airplane
Take me to a new day
Come on
Little orange airplane
Take me to a new day
Take me far away
On an orange airplane
03 Standing on the Edge (05:39)
Standing by myself on the sidewalk
Nothing in this world could make me talk
I'm nailed to this floor where there is no air
Alone I see myself and stare
Locked inside this world you gave me
It's lonely here through the smoke I can't see clear
And I know all the ways and I'll try
And I've seen all the places I get eyed
If I bear myself in the yard
Would the end of the day always seem so hard
Wait for the world to turn around
Then I won't go up or down
Gentle winds must sometimes sit
The face that looks on in my mirror
And I know all the ways and I can try
And I've seen all the places where I hide
If I bear myself out in the yard
Would the end of the day always be so hard
Standing on the edge of the wall
Sometimes I get too close and I fall, yeah
And I know all the ways and I can try
And I've seen all the places where I hide
If I bear myself in the yard
Would the end of the day always be so hard
Well all the nights last a thousand years
When you're in a time that feels so near
I'll just say you were the word I found
And then I won't go up or down
And I know all the ways and I can try
And I've seen all the places where I hide
If I bear myself in the yard
Would the end of the day always be so hard
Standing on the edge of the wall
Sometimes I look down and I fall, yeah
Just standing on the edge of the wall
I always go to far and I fall, yeah
05 Seeing and Believing (03:35)
Moving slowly in the morning light
Waiting for you to come along
Understand it's time for a change
Now I know I've got nothing to say
Looking through me like there's no one there
Journey to the great nowhere
If you are seeing what you're believing it's nothing new
Don't say you're seeing what you're believing
I've been there too, yeah
Today you bring yourself around
Only walking in the shade
Say I should change before it's too late
Now I know I've got nothing to say
Looking through me like there's no one there
Send me to the great nowhere
If you are seeing what you're believing it's nothing new
Don't say you're seeing what you're believing
I've been there too, yeah
Moving slowly through the morning light
I waited for you to come along
Too bad that it's too late
You should know I've got nothing to say
I'll be alone and I don't care
Journey to the great nowhere
If you are seeing what you're believing it's nothing new
Don't say you're seeing what you're believing
'Cause I know too
08 Strange Out Here (04:27)
Were you around
Spring came today
Outside your room
You were away
All the lost hours spent in the cold
I didn't care
I dreamed you were there
Now I'm counting my chances gone 1 2 3
If you see me today would you remember me
Say you are free why don't you really live
You gotta hate forever never can forgive
And it's clear
I learned to trust the rain
I'm drifting out of reach
It's kind of strange out here
In this city built on broken glass
And the carcasses of a million dead sheep
Where the blood runs thick down third street
Down the gutter to the railroad station
And takes a train
Up, over these big mountains to the sea
That's where you gotta be
You gotta go to the sea
Yesterday I'm so glad to forget
I was so sane all life remains
But think of the time you learned to love
The rain in the park we walked in the dark
Now I'm counting my chances gone 1 2 3
If you saw me today would you remember me
Been raining forever, go ahead and leave
But you gotta hate forever, you never can forgive
So clear
I can't distrust the rain
I'm drifting out of reach
It's very strange out here
09 The Turning (02:44)
Sand on the beach beats a hole through my hand
Hands of the clock stand where I have to walk
All the way around
Turn upside down
Just look around to the turning
Everything inside is burning
Sign on the wall that I don't understand
It's just a part of a dream that I had
Feet on the ground
Head in the sound
Just look around to the turning
Everything inside is burning
Water so cool that its thoughts seem to soothe
Some things are real that I don't have to prove
Now you are learning
Rome now is burning
Just look around to the turning
Everything inside is burning
Just look around to the turning
Everything inside is burning
10 Clairvoyance (04:03)
Clairvoyance, clairvoyance
Wild into the dead of night
Around the corner I see a light
See it coming my way run
Standing on the ground waiting for the sign
Whoa I can't go on I can't sleep
I can't last more than another week
'Cause I know what's coming then
Forgive my lies, I see it's too much
Doing all I can not to see your plan
I know it's no good
No good to keep you waiting
Whoa I can't go on I can't sleep
I can't last more than another week
'Cause I know what's coming then
'Cause of my clairvoyance
Daylight isn't here
But it's a part of us
I see it coming my way run
Standing on the grass waiting for the sun
Whoa I can't go on I can't sleep
I can't last more than another week
'Cause I know what's coming then
'Cause I know what's coming then
'Cause of my clairvoyance, clairvoyance
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