Bissare il successo di "Final Straw" sarebbe stata impresa ardua per chiunque, gli Snow Patrol l'hanno superato. "Eyes Open" è infatti un bellissimo album, oltretutto baciato da un enorme successo (di consensi e di vendite) planetario (persino negli U.S.A., dove "Chasing Cars" ha spopolato).

I punti di forza di Gary Lightbody e soci (grande senso melodico ed una scrittura pop-rock solida e scorrevole) vengono non solo confermati, ma arricchiti da una qualità di scrittura che sembra sorprendentemente migliorare negli anni (cosa rara da riscontrare nelle compagini di origine anglosassone).

Il primo estratto "You're All I Have" (pezzo moderatamente tirato, sospeso tra il classico coretto "uh uh uh-uh" e il ritornello secco ed incisivo) ha avuto un buona esposizione anche qua in Italia, grazie al suo utilizzo nella campagna pubblicitaria di un noto festival estivo. La successiva "Hands Open" scorre che è un piacere, e si rivelerà il pezzo più rock dell'album grazie al suo giro di chitarra senza fronzoli. "Chasing Cars" è fra le ballate più belle uscite l'anno scorso, il crescendo melodico ed il refrain da accendini sono da brivido, mentre "Shut Your Eyes" è un guitar pop alla Coldplay innocuo ma piacevole. "Beginning To Get To Me" rialza il tiro e ci introduce a "You Could Be Happy", sorta di ninna nanna che sembra accompagnata da un carillon.

Di nuovo Chris Martin fa capolino in una ballata pianistica come "Make This Go On Forver", che comunque esplode in un vortice di chitarra nel bel finale. "Set The Fire To The Third Bar" contempla la gentile partecipazione della "sorella d'arte" Martha Wainwright, è un lento molto particolare giocato sulle due voci dei vocalist che si intrecciano accompagnate da un delicato piano prima e da una particolarissima (ma mai invasiva) ritmica nel finale.
"Headlight On Dark Roads" ricalca lo stilema di "You're All I Have" ma presenta un giro melodico maggiormente d'impatto, non come la bellissima "Open Your Eyes", nutrita di U2 a tonnellate. "The Finish Line" chiude in maniera sommessa un album in cui tutto è al suo posto, e la qualità dei brani proposti è decisamente sopra la media.

Speriamo che Lightbody e compagnia non vadano incontro a quell'imborghesimento artistico che ha colpito senza pietà molti dei loro colleghi più illustri.

Elenco tracce testi samples e video

01   You're All I Have (04:33)

02   Hands Open (03:17)

03   Chasing Cars (04:27)

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

04   Shut Your Eyes (03:17)

05   It's Beginning to Get to Me (04:35)

I wanted something
That's purer than the water
Like we were

It's not there now
Ineloquence and anger
Are all we have

Like Saturn's rings
An icy loop around me
Too hard to hold

Lash out first
At all the things we don't like
Or understand

And it's beginning to get to me
That I know more of the stars and sea
Than I do of what's in your head
Barely touching in our cold bed

Are you beginning to get my point
That all this fighting with aching joints
Is doing nothing but tire us out
And no one knows what this fight's about

The answer phone
The lonely sound of your voice
Frozen in time

I only need
The compass that you gave me
To guide me on

And it's beginning to get to me
That I know more of the stars and sea
Than I do of what's in your head
Barely touching in our cold bed

Are you beginning to get my point
That all this fighting with aching joints
Is doing nothing but tire us out
And no one knows what this fight's about

It's so thrilling but also wrong
Don't have to prove that you are so strong
'Cause I can carry you on my back
After our enemies attack

I tried to tell you before I left
But I was screaming under my breath
You are the only thing that makes sense
Just ignore all this present tense

We need to feel breathless with love
And not collapsed under its weight
I'm gasping for the air to fill
My lungs with everything I've lost

We need to feel breathless with love
And not collapsed under its weight
I'm gasping for the air to fill
My lungs with everything I've lost

06   You Could Be Happy (03:02)

You could be happy and I won't know
But you weren't happy the day I watched you go
And all the things that I wish I had not said
Are played in loops 'til it's madness in my head

Is it too late to remind you how we were
And not our last days of silent, screaming, blur
Most of what I remember makes me sure
I should have stopped you from walking out the door

You could be happy, I hope you are
You made me happier than I'd been by far
Somehow everything I own smells of you
And for the tiniest moment it's all not true

Do the things that you always wanted to
Without me there to hold you back, don't think, just do

More than anything I want to see you girl
Take a glorious bite out of the whole world

07   Make This Go On Forever (05:47)

Please don't let this turn into something it's not
I can only give you everything I've got
I can't be as sorry as you think I should
But I still love you more than anyone else could

All that I keep thinking throughout this whole flight
Is it could take my whole damn life to make this right
The splintered mast I'm holding on won't save me long
Because I know fine well that what I did was wrong

The last girl and the last reason to make this last for as long as I could
The first kiss and the first time that I felt connected to anything
The weight of water, the way you taught me to look past everything I have ever learned
The final word in the final sentence you ever uttered to me was "love"

We have got through so much worse than this before
What's so different this time that you can't ignore
You say it is much more than just my last mistake
And we should spend some time apart for both our sakes

The last girl and the last reason to make this last for as long as I could
The first kiss and the first time that I felt connected to anything
The weight of water, the way you told me to look past everything I have ever learned
The final word in the final sentence you ever uttered to me was "love"

The last girl and the last reason to make this last for as long as I could
The first kiss and the first time that I felt connected to anything
The weight of water, the way you taught me to look past everything I have ever learned
The final word in the final sentence you ever uttered to me was "love"

And I don't know where to look
My words just break and melt
Please just save me from this darkness
Please just save me from this darkness

And I don't know where to look
My words just break and melt
Please just save me from this darkness
Please just save me from this darkness

08   Set the Fire to the Third Bar (feat. Martha Wainwright) (03:23)

09   Headlights on Dark Roads (03:30)

For once I want to be the car crash
Not always just the traffic jam
Hit me hard enough to wake me
And lead me wild to your dark roads

Oo
Oo
Oo
Oo

CHORUS
Headlights before me
So beautiful, so clear
Reach out and take it
'Cause I'm so tired of all ths fear

My tongue is lost, oh, I can't tell you
Please just see it in my eyes
I pull up thorns from our ripped bodies
And let the blood fall in my mouth

Oo
Oo
Oo
Oo

CHORUS
CHORUS

Headlights
Headlights

10   Open Your Eyes (05:41)

All this feels strange and untrue
And I won't waste a minute without you
My bones ache, my skin feels cold
And I'm getting so tired and so old

The anger swells in my guts
And I won't feel these slices and cuts
I want so much to open your eyes
'Cause I need you to look into mine

CHORUS
Tell me that you'll open your eyes
Tell me that you'll open your eyes
Tell me that you'll open your eyes
Tell me that you'll open your eyes

Get up, get out, get away from these liars
'Cause they don't get your soul or your fire
Take my hand, knot your fingers through mine
And we'll walk from this dark room for the last time

Every minute from this minute now
We can do what we like anywhere
I want so much to open your eyes
'Cause I need you to look into mine

CHORUS
CHORUS

All this feels strange and untrue
And I won't waste a minute without you

11   The Finish Line (03:28)

The earth is warm next to my ear
Insect noise is all that I hear
A magic trick makes the world disappear
The skies are dark, they're dark but they're clear

A distant motorcade and suddenly there's joy
The snow and tickertape blurs all my senses numb
It's like the finish line where everything just ends
The crack of radios seems close enough to touch

Cold water, cleaning my wounds
A side parade, with a single balloon
I'm done with this, I'm counting to ten
Blue as seas, running to them

I feel like I am watching everything from space
And in a minute I hear my name and I wake
I think the finish line's a good place we could start
Take a deep breath, take in all that you could want

Carico i commenti...  con calma

Altre recensioni

Di  Adil

 Le undici canzoni di Eyes Open convincono soltanto in parte.

 Il compitino è stato svolto in maniera diligente e precisa, ma le speranze di bissare il successo di due anni fa sono ragionevolmente remote.


Di  Vivio

 Le canzoni di questo album sono orecchiabili sin dall'inizio ma se ascoltate e riascoltate ti rimangono dentro, dandoti qualche bella sensazione.

 "Hands Open", la vera gemma dell'album, una CANZONE nel vero senso della parola, che trasmette qualcosa di intimo con le parole.