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La Via Lattea, oscuro sentiero che si estende nei tortuosi dedali della notte, carovana di astri dall'indefinito verso l'ignoto. Quante volte Steve Kilbey nelle afose notti australiane ha alzato lo squardo per far conta di stelle e in quante si è soffermato su quella che ha abbandonato l'acceso universo notturno per andare ad adagiarsi in un ignoto alveo dell'immenso oceano.
Starfish è stato l'apice della parabola dei Church, il canto delle sirene. Eppure agli albori fu definito album poco coraggioso e mieloso dai detrattori e i fan della prima ora, abituati alla strana e originale formula dei precedenti lavori, pop mantecato di tradizionale e canonica psichedelica, quella di scuola Byrds per intenderci. Un veloce e avventato giudizio porta a facili quanto errate conclusioni. Quest'album ha dispensato un'alchimia unica e originale alla musica pop arricchendo la lista dei preziosi lavori giunti dalla lontana Australia che nel decennio ottanta ha vissuto la sua età dell'oro con Died Pretty, i Birthday Party e Nick Cave, i Radio Birdman e tanti altri. Apparentemente lineare e semplice nella sua struttura, Starfish è un lavoro inintelliggibile che si svela poco alla volta, ascolto dopo ascolto. Il pop delizioso e perennemente malinconico imbastito dalla chitarra di Peter Koppes (coaudiuvato dalla seconda chitarra di Marty Willson-Piper e dal valido Nick Ward alla batteria) ondeggia flessuoso sulle liriche di Kilbey, una perfetta, mutua intesa che corre sul filo di vibrazioni uniche, di sensuali e spirituali inquietudini dagli elevati valori espressivi.
Incomunicabilità ed immensi spazi siderali senza possibilità di incontro, di intersezione nei sinistri riff di "Destination" aprono le porte del cielo proiettandoci verso la via celestiale che noi, adolescenti ottantini, abbiamo percorso nei nostri pensieri, nel buio delle nostre camerette, in spiaggia o campagna, in compagnia o accompagnati solamente da note e parole, imprigionati e convogliati dolcemente, incapaci di reagire, "qualcosa di bianco e luccicante ti porta qui, nonostante la tua destinazione, sotto la Via Lattea stasera". "Under The Milky Way" più che una canzone è una dimensione, uno stato emotivo, un caposaldo dell'intero panorama musicale degli '80, incantevole nelle sue pregievoli aree ed originale nell'assolo di chitarra dall'effetto cornamusa. Kilbey profonde calore, ci acquieta con ammalianti infusi di parole nonostante narri di soldi sporchi ("Blood Money") e patemi d'animo ("Lost"), finissimo pop inzuppato fradicio di malinconia. "Il canto che preferisco è il grido del rondone, perché lo associo all'estate" recita Trevor Cox in un suo scritto. Starfish è per me una sonora, eloquente rappresentazione dell'autunno e gli autunni della mia anima. È estremamente facile perdersi, ritrovarsi, girovagare senza meta ("North, South, East and West") negli infiniti lidi di quest'opera e quando le atmosfere virano verso orizzonti più colorati e festosi ("Spark", "Antenna", "A New Season"), il crepuscolo è dietro l'angolo nelle liriche taglienti della ipnotica e affascinante cavalcata che porta il nome di "Reptile". "Hotel Womb" chiude l'album, in sordina e senza clamori, proprio come tutte le cose semplicemente perfette nelle loro piccole imperfezioni, quelle che custodiamo accuratamente nei nostri scaffali, quelle celate in un punto remoto, imprecisato dell'oceano
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 Destination (05:52)
Far below the surface, where the women sway
Green shadows greet another day
Drowned for the moment, on an empty ocean bed
And I cannot lift my head
Late for an appointment, clothes everywhere
I cannot find my memory anywhere
Ah disappointment just doesn't care
Off in the distance just waiting there
Take back her keys, what shall we do today
Maybe a little lunch down at the ghost cafe
Sand in my sandals, my blood feels like red wine
They say, hey everything will work out fine
02 Under the Milky Way (04:58)
Sometimes when this place gets kind of empty
Sound of their breath fades with the light
I think about the loveless fascination
Under the Milky Way tonight
Lower the curtain down in Memphis
Lower the curtain down all right
I got no time for private consultation
Under the Milky Way tonight
Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find
Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find
And it's something quite peculiar
Something that's shimmering and white
Leads you here despite your destination
Under the Milky Way tonight
(Chorus)
Under the Milky Way tonight
04 Lost (04:48)
Sometimes I'm wondering under prehistoric skies.
I feel it's all beginning right before my eyes.
I must go back, reexamine my love.
Here she comes with the penetrated stare.
I don't know when, but I wish I knew where.
Quick calculation, there's not nearly enough.
Because we're lost, because we're lost.
Cold desert stars, feel them sparkle and frost,
They are so lost.
Follow her down to worship some god.
Who never speaks to me, I wonder if that's odd.
Then he says you're never listening.
The pursuit of adulation is your butter and your bread.
It's an exquisite corpse and its lips are red
And its teeth are glistening.
But you are lost, but you are lost.
Now hang up 'cause the lines are all crossed,
You are so lost.
If you're alone and you're feeling blue,
Everyone in Persia probably feels like that too.
I just hope they don't believe like you do.
Here she comes with her unforgiving web.
Almost forever I've been drinking these dregs.
It must be time to change our brew, cruel, view.
Before we're lost, before we're lost.
Look at the map, add up the cost,
Before we're lost.
06 Spark (03:45)
I'm saturated. I'm wet with your tears, you spill so easily.
In reflection I'll see you again.
Approach me, soak me.
Faith, faith, breathe.
'Cause it's here, it's where the air is clear,
Where far off things could be quite near.
No repairs are needed, just a spark.
I'm interested, you've always been a subject, that I could learn.
Splendid hills, unconquerable mountains.
Climb, don't ever turn back.
Seed, seed, grow.
(chorus)
(Repeat first verse and chorus)
07 Antenna (03:50)
Why do you always wrongly assume
That you're so well aware of what's happening there,
Right here in this room?
You're just an antenna, you're just a wire.
There's a thousand tongues wagging in your ears tonight,
And you turn around and you call me a liar.
Lightly babe, oh the fine lights cannot find you.
She stay out my way, it's the pulse I am aligned to.
And everything you say, you'll need that breath one day.
Well, you're just an antenna, you're just a code.
You translate like a book, the fuses all cook.
You eat humble pie and it tastes of the road.
Lightly babe, oh the fine lights cannot find you.
She say, that's the way, that's the fate I am resigned to.
And everything you say, you'll need that breath one day.
You're just an antenna, you're just a gauge.
You disturb my slumber and round up the numbers
And put them inside your velvety cage.
Lightly babe, oh the fine lights cannot find you.
She say, make my day, and the sunlight will not blind you.
Lightly babe, oh the fine lights cannot find you.
I may never pray to the fortune that's behind you.
08 Reptile (04:56)
Too dangerous to keep.
Too feeble to let go.
And you want to bite the hand.
Should have stopped this long ago.
Go now, you've been set free.
Another month or so you'll be gorging on me ("poisoning me" on 2nd and 3rd times)
With your lovely smile.
I see you slither away with your skin and your tail,
Your flickering tongue and your rattling scales
Like a real reptile.
Had you coiled around my arm.
How could you ever know
How I loved your diamond eyes?
But that was long ago. (Chorus)
And I should have believed Eve.
She said we had to blow.
She was the apple of my eye.
It wasn't long ago. (Chorus)
10 Hotel Womb (05:40)
Volcano pierce the air, ashes block out the sun.
Down in the lair, well I met her there
With a price for everyone.
I paid eighty dollars for this wedding ring,
I couldn't take it off if I tried.
And the cactus sure tastes strangely sweet
As it goes down inside
I dream I'm safe in my hotel womb.
Soft and soul made, it's a wonderful room.
I wish I'm back in my hotel womb.
Slip through the crack, to that wonderful room.
Sudden voltage in the night, with a rainforest girl.
As we float downstream to the Amazon River
Where the black waters swirl.
I say, why are you people wearing those masks?
I say, can we be reconciled?
She says the mother of the storm has to roam the sky
Searching for her child. (Chorus)
Morning comes at last, and she's lying by my side.
She's got the face of the widow who keeps following me
And the body of my bride.
I say, why are those buildings swaying like trees?
I say, can we stop for a while?
She says, can't you hear the city that's hidden in there?
It's just another mile.
(Chorus)
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Altre recensioni
Di Mariaelena
"Under The Milky Way sarà il loro capolavoro, un sogno melodico e vellutato di dimensione sproporzionate."
"Starfish accoglie atmosfere uniche e ogni brano è notevole, con un basilare lavoro delle chitarre acustiche in una pop-psych anni ’80."
