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Non so quale aria tirasse nel '78 del secolo scorso in Inghilterra, ma di sicuro era un'arietta abbastanza pesante. Tra sferragliamenti, grida, sincopi e stridii questo disco, esordio dei Siouxsie and The Banshees, disegna un quadro di alienazione e disadattamento da lasciare un bel po' incupiti dopo l'ascolto. Diciamolo subito: non è un disco facile, né leggero. E qualcuno potrebbe dire che non è nemmeno bello, ma chi può dire come sarà un fiume alla foce guardandolo alla sorgente? Il suono paga pegno alpunk , ma inserendo elementi tenebrosi, con melodie ossessive, quadrate, marziali. Anche gli abiti si fanno scuri, la pelle nera avvolge i corpi e le calze si lacerano: benvenuti nel dark-punk!
Le danze si aprono con "Pure": dal lamento del basso una chitarra languida introduce l'atmosfera depressa che le urla di Siouxsie Sioux sublimano in alienazione. Avete freddo? Non c'è tempo perché dal giro di basso emerge una chitarra sferragliante, tutto cresce, entra la batteria e via poi nella cavalcata di "Jigsaw Feeling", pezzo che è un po' la summa di quanto avverrà nel prosieguo del disco. L'eleganza epica di "Overground" con quei pochi accordi di chitarra (uno dei pezzi migliori, perché diverso da tutto il resto), lascia spazio a "Carcass" che ricorda parecchio nella sua intro "Viciuos" di Lou Reed, ma poi è un classico punk con ritornello da cantare a squarciagola (ehm, vi ci vedo a cantare "Be a carcass - Be a dead pork/Be limblessy in love"). C'è spazio poi per la cover di "Helter Skelter" dei Beatles (dal "White Album") resa molto più furiosa, sia nel cantato che nei suoni, per la serie "pogata assicurata". Segue un trittico di alienazione con "Metal Postcard", "Nicotine Stain" e "Suburban Relapse", tutte basate sulla forma ossessiva delle melodie (invero molto povere): chiaro esempio dei limiti compositivi del gruppo. Il disco si chiude con uno dei suoi momenti migliori: introdotti da un arpeggio che a poco a poco avvolge entriamo in "Switch", una riflessione sullo stato delle cose accompagnati dalla melodia del sassofono.
I meriti di questo disco stanno non tanto nelle sue qualità musicali, quanto nell'essere seminale: effettivamente ha contribuito a tracciare la rotta del dark-punk, soprattutto iconograficamente.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
02 Jigsaw Feeling (04:37)
Chorus:
Send me forwards-say my feelings
But all the signals-send me reeling
Jigsaw Feeling
One day I'm feeling total
the next I'm split in two
My eyes are doing somersaults
staring at my shoe
My brain is out of my hand
there's nothing to prevent
The impulse is quite meaningless
in a cerebral non-event
Chorus
Five fingers do my walking
ten toes unravel 'Knots'
Amorphous jigsaw pieces
falling into slots
Chorus
So I just sit in reverie
getting on my nerves
The intangible bonds that keep me
sitting on the verge...
of a breakdown
of a reaction
of a result
(defeat me...)..Complete me...maybe...defeat me
(Jigsaw feeling)
Lyric: Severin Music: Severin/McKay
03 Overground (03:50)
Got to give up life in this netherworld
Got to go up to where the air is stale
And live a life of pleasantries
Mingle in the modern families
Overground--from abnormality
Overboard--for identity
Overground--for normality
Overboard--for identity
This limbo is no place
To be a digit in another space
In another crowd
I'm nameless bound
Overground--from abnormality
Overboard--for identity
Overground--for normality
Overboard--for identity
Overground--I'll be worse than me
Overground--it's clear to me
I'll be worse than me
04 Carcass (03:49)
Someone's in cold storage
Seeking heinz main-courses
Craving for a raw love
He'll hide you from the cleaver
He'll hang with you forever
Longing for a fresh meat
By hook or by crook
You'll be 1st in his book
For an impaled affair
By hook or by crook
You'll be last in his book
Of flesh oh so rare
Be a carcass -- be a dead pork
Be limblessly in love
Be a carcass -- be a dead pork
Be limblessly in love
Someone's left in cold storage
Thawed in heinz main-courses
Carving for a new tin
He got you with the cleaver
He hung you up forever
Anticipating new skin
Out of the frying pan
And into the fire
58th variety
Out of the frying pan
And into the fire
Mother had her son for tea
Be a carcass -- be a dead pork
Be limblessly in love
Be a carcass -- be a dead pork
Be limblessly in love
In love with your stumps
In love with the bleeding
In love with the pain
That you once felt
As you become a carcass
You become a carcass
Carcass
05 Helter Skelter (03:48)
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride
Till I get to the bottom and I see you again.
Do you, don't you want me to love you
I'm coming down fast but I'm miles above you
Tell me tell me tell me come on tell me the answer
You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer
So look out
Helter skelter
Na la la la la la
Helter skelter
Na la la la la la
Helter skelter
Will you, won't you want me to make you
I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you
Tell me tell me tell me the answer
You may be a lover but you ain't no fucking dancer
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop...
06 Mirage (02:50)
I'm just a vision on your TV screen
Just something conjured from a dream
Seen thro' your x-ray eyes,
A see-thro' scene
The image is no images
It's not what it seems.
My limbs are like palm trees
Swaying in no breeze
My body's an oasis
To drink from as you please
I'm not seeing what I'm meant to believe in
Your non excuse for human being.
It's not plain to see
That I'm playing with me
A photo-fit of loose ends, framed in 3-D
Seen thro' your x-ray eyes,
A see-thro' scene
The image is no images
It's not what it seems
08 Nicotine Stain (02:58)
Lyric: Sioux Music: Severin
It's just a habit
when I reach to the packet
for my last cigarette
until the day breaks
and then my hand shakes
but it it's just driving me insane
when the smoke gets in my brain
I can't resist it
Chorus:
Wallow in that ash bath
soaking up the fumes
and see the nicotine stain
start to spread
I'm so congested
cos north, south, east and west
catarrh rests on my chest
congealed and twisted
cough up and shift it
but I can feel my lungs collapse
sinking deep into my lap
I'm so useless
Chorus
I'm so useful
if you don't want to fight
just give your foe a fright
say you'll drop me
on every country
see all will be stone dead
when the nicotine stain spreads
just light me
09 Suburban Relapse (04:12)
I'm sorry that I hit you
But my string snapped
I'm sorry I disturbed your cat-nap
But whilst finishing a chore
I asked myself "what for"
Then something snapped,
I had a relapse... A Suburban relapse
I was washing up the dishes
Minding my own business
When my string snapped
I had a relapse... A Suburban relapse
(Should I?)
Throw things at the neighbors
Expose myself to strangers?
Kill myself or... you?
Now memory gets hazy?
I think I must be crazy
But my string snapped
I had a relapse...
A suburban relapse
10 Switch (06:51)
Different lives
In different places
Familiar problems
Same old faces
Shuffle lives
Into wrong categories
Cross the wires
And fuse humanities
Watch the muscles twitch
For a brand new switch...
Scientist G.P.'s
With patient guinea pigs
Curing their headaches
With drastic side-effects
Watch the muscles twich
For a brand new switch�
Doctor rectorates
Condescending from on high
For all hallucinators
See druggist in the sky
Vicar experiments
But 'tis blasphemy
Dismissing thought of progress
As the mark of devilry
Switch
People walk
And even talk
People listen
Then they halt
Something blows up
Won't come down
Scattered muscles twitch
Too late to switch
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